Heidi's ADHD Battle

Some weeks are good, some are bad. Last week was a rough week.

First off, everyone seemed to have a cold. Which made everybody cranky and miserable. Complete with fevers (Rory hit 102.5!), stuffy noses to the point of nose bleeds, congestion, sore throats. I mean the works! 

Secondly, Heidi Anne decided to cut her hair the day before school picture day. So we had to get that fixed ASAP. Her hair is now in an "A" Line Bob style. 
Translation: Super short!

I don't talk about this a lot but Heidi Anne suffers from ADHD. Which isn't news, after all she's been diagnosed since she was 5. It's just gotten worse over this past year. 

She gets easily distracted (I used to joke she was Dug the dog from Up). She requires constant reminding of what she's supposed to be doing. She's very active, always moving or frigidity. She can be very talkative in class. She lacks impulse control. She has issues testing, she does good on tests but she could do better if she could focus longer.

Heidi gets frustrated and angry with herself due to everything listed above and as a mom that's hard to watch. I guess I don't bring up the ADHD because I don't want her to be treated differently. Or to use the ADHD as an excuse. I don't want her to be "Oh, I have no impulse control so that's why I ate all the cookies - it's the ADHD's fault."

On the other hand, we do try to understand the fine line between what part the ADHD plays in her behavior and what she actually has control over. We just adjusted her medications and waiting to see if that improves things for Heidi Anne. 

She is fairly good about following the rules at school. We figured out that one big reason is that the rules are written everywhere she goes. In the lunchroom, lunch rules. In class - classroom rules. In PE, the gym rules. In the hallways - general school rules. Everywhere she goes the rules are plainly written for her. So we're placing different rules in different parts of the house. It maybe silly but if it helps, I'll try anything to make life easier for her.

I wish I could take the ADHD away from her. But I can't. All I can do is give her tools and coping skills to manage it within herself. Which will take time.