Anyways, Brandon and I reached a compromise. He could take 1 friend to Zoombezi Bay, our local water park. I haven't been anywhere this summer, so I was cool with it. I asked my sister and her daughter to go with us, just so I'd have another adult around for the day. I'll spare you the details, but I ended up paying an extra $75 to rent a cabana and it was awesome. Below is a picture of Brandon, Gavin (my middle child and mini me) and Brandon's friend Dustin.
Gavin is pretending to sleep. Actually, he did fall asleep for a little bit that day. He was beside himself with anticipation of soccer season starting on Monday and wanted to rest up. Gavin plays for an elite club in town and we've been on break for 3 weeks. He gets a total of 5 weeks off per year, this past three weeks and two around Christmas. He gets twitchy when he's not playing soccer.
Both of my boys have ADHD (thank you for that part of your gene pool sperm donors) and in the beginning of April we made the decision that they could try out going off of their meds. They hate taking them. Gavin says he's not fun when he's on them. They've both been on meds since they were 5 and now are 13 and about to be 12. Their doctor and I were willing to let them try it with the condition that if there were issues, they would go back on the meds with no questions asked.
For the most part, they're doing well. Gavin has a lot more issues than Brandon (worse gene pool I suppose), but I've noticed that his rotation of weirdness has changed. It used to be biting fingers till they bleed, tucking shirts obsessively and licking his lips until he looks like Ronald McDonald, in that order. Each tick would last a couple of weeks and then would repeat once he got through the three things. Oh yeah and when it storms, he would hide in the closet, positive that at any moment a tornado was going to come through and sweep up the entire house, Wizard of Oz style. Off the meds, he has stopped all three of the rituals and storms still scare him, but he doesn't have to hide in a closet. The downside to all this? He is SOOOO much meaner. Like I said earlier, he's my mini me. I'm mean, I'll admit it. I'm the bitch that's gonna tell you exactly what I think, whether it pisses you off or not. The downside of him being my mini me is that he knows exactly how to push my buttons. It kills me. Sometimes I wanna smack the crap out of him, but hey, that's child abuse in this day and age, right? We get through it ok though.
Brandon, well I haven't seen a whole lot of change in him. He's my passive one. He's the kid that wants to please everyone. He works hard, gets good grades and is generally a great kid. You ask him to do something, he does it. You just have to make sure to spell out exactly what you want or he'll forget steps and it won't be right. That's where his ADHD gets him. I'll take that any day over asking Gavin to do something and having him say ok, then basically give me the finger when I turn around and walk away. I know he does it, I just can't turn around quick enough to catch him and shove that middle finger up his damn butt!
Anyways, soccer started on Monday. Gavin hates conditioning. They had to run two miles, one of which had to be under 8 minutes, then do two full sets of bleacher steps. One side effect of being off the meds is weight gain. Hell, Adderall is used as a weight loss drug in obese people, it's a controlled substance, speed people. Gavin's probably gained 10 pounds since April. Needless to say, he was NOT happy when he got done Monday night. Yesterday morning I got a text that said "mom, i'm in bed and cant move wht shld i do?". I laughed at first, but then called him and told him to get a hot shower and stretch, then take some Advil. 20 minutes later I get another text and it says "mom got dizzy and puked in shower how 2 clean up?" Seriously? WTF?? So I called again and confirmed it was indeed in the shower and not all over the bathroom. It was just in the shower, great buddy, I'll come home at lunch and take care of it.
I go home at lunch and where is Gavin? Not resting like he should be, he's outside playing in 85 degree heat with 100% humidity. WTF? I told him to get in the house and he didn't understand what the issue was because, according to him, he was drinking water and rehydrating. Well buddy, I got news for ya, if you're well enough to be playing outside, you're well enough to be doing your chores and cleaning up your puke. That sure pissed him off. Oh well....
My parents had all three kids last night. The two big ones stayed the night and I didn't have to pick the little one up until 9. What a nice little break! It doesn't happen very often being a single parent with kids who's dads have no part in their lives. That's a story for another time I guess. I took advantage and hit the gym and tanning after work. Once I got home, I was content with just sitting on my ass and doing nothing, knowing full well I should be mowing the lawn or folding laundry. Oh well, it'll get done eventually. Peace and quiet are hard to come by in my house.....
Later in the evening, older boys came over and we had an interesting discussion. I'll probably post that tomorrow. Let's just leave it at cougars and pumas......
Happy Hump Day!
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