Moved

See me at http://blog.50percentdad.com from now on.  This site will no longer be updated, and will be closed in a few days.  If for some reason you have trouble accessing the new site, please leave a comment here.

Moving

Over the next day or two, I'll be moving from Blogger to a WordPress blog, as well as moving to my own domain name, blog.50percentdad.com.  This should give me more flexibility as far as customizing the blog so I can eventually add some cool new features that I have in mind.

Unfortunately, because of the way Google+ comments work, they will likely not transfer to the new address, and will be lost.  I'll see if there's any way to preserve them, but I'm not sure it's possible.  This may also mean a bit of downtime, but I'll do my best to get the new site up and running before I take down this one.  If you're trying to find me here, and having trouble, try the new address.  If neither is working, I sincerely apologize and ask that you try again the next day.

Wish me luck!

Week in Review

Saturday

We were lucky on Saturday to be able to take the M&Ms to a birthday party for one of Monster's best friends.  This was my first chance to observe him in a social situation since he began taking medication, and he did really well.  He's not normally terrible in social situations, but in the past he's often had trouble keeping his hands to himself.  He would get an idea in his head and act on it, without pausing to consider the implications.  I could see him thinking about pushing, crashing into, or otherwise behaving "inappropriately", then deciding not to.  This is a big change for Monster, the idea that he doesn't need to act on every idea he gets.  Hopefully, now that the medicine has given him this ability, it takes hold and he nurtures and grows this skill.  For my part, I'll offer encouragement whenever I see it in action (see also: Thursday).

Monday

Monday morning, I was in court so I could take the M&Ms to Florida.  I've already written about this here, so I won't add anything more now.

In the evening, we took the M&Ms swimming at one of their favourite pools.  I played a bunch with both Monster and Monkey, helping Monkey get pushed around by the jets in the kids pool, and driving Monster around the deeper pool (and later getting him to help kick so we could move faster).

Tuesday

I spoke with Monster's teacher when I picked him up from school on Tuesday, and asked how he was doing in class.  She said that he's basically been getting steadily better since the middle of last week, and that she hadn't had to ask him to sit down and get to work at all so far this week.  I told her that he's on medication now (I hadn't told her earlier so that I could get her unbiased opinion on how his behaviour changed).
After homework, I took the M&Ms to my office Christmas party, where Monkey in particular had quite a bit of fun showing off his Lego to everyone who would listen.  All four of us (me, Bunny, and the M&Ms) won a door prize, the kids each got a little stuffed animal.

Wednesday

Wednesday was an interesting day.  I was volunteering for an "in school field trip" for Monster's class.  I had to rush first thing to drop off Monster, then rush to drop off Monkey and rush back.  When I was halfway to dropping Monster off, I realized that I hadn't given him his medication that morning.  Ok, so now I needed to drop Monkey off, then hurry home to get it, and hurry back to Monster's school in order to be in time for the field trip.  This meant leaving Monkey earlier than I normally do (normally when I drop him off, I hang around until he starts to get engaged in whatever they're doing, so he doesn't feel abandoned).  He seemed fine with it, so I guess I was worried about nothing.

Made it back to Monster's school just in time, and gave him his medicine.  This meant that I got to watch him, in a classroom setting, as the medicine took effect.  The field trip was to make a painting, and when Monster sat down, he was squirming and fiddling with his brushes, and having difficulty focusing.  Over the next half hour he gradually calmed down and was able to focus.  Until first recess.  When his school does an in school field trip, the students don't get to go out for recess.  Which meant that Monster didn't get to have his morning snack.  Shortly before the recess bell rang, he said he was hungry.  About 15 minutes after the recess bell rang he started to get frustrated and cranky.  But there were no snacks nearby, and I was busy helping the class with their art projects, so there wasn't much I could do at this point.  I will try to talk to his teacher about this, and find a way to ensure that he can have a morning snack, even on days like this.

Later in the afternoon, Monster had a math unit test.  When I picked him up, I asked how it went, and he was really excited and told me that he "beat the test" and did really well.  It turns out that he actually failed it.  Unfortunately, he misunderstood one of the sections that was worth 30% of the test.  He had written the correct answers first, then after rereading the question, erased them and wrote incorrect answers.  He got zero on that section, and was crushed when he realized what he had done wrong.  I was frustrated (and still am, to some extent) that his teacher could clearly see that he knew how to do it correctly (the erased answers were still visible), but gave him zero on the section when he's already struggling with his confidence at school.  It was supposed to be a math test, testing his math abilities, not a reading comprehension test.  He didn't get it wrong because he couldn't do the math, he got it wrong because the question wasn't clear to him.  She could have offered partial marks, or given him some way to retake that section, but instead decided to give zero.  I can understand why she did that, but it's still frustrating to me, painful to Monster, and not helpful to anyone.  Some review material was sent home over the weekend for him to prepare for the test, I'm going to try to talk to his teacher about what exactly was sent home.  I'm not sure if the problem was a failure to learn it on his part (it might have been done before he was taking his medication, and he wasn't able to pay attention), a lack of review over the weekend, or if the review material didn't cover that topic in the same way.

Thursday

Thursday evening, we went out for a public Christmas tree lighting, with hot chocolate and cookies.  At one point, Monster and a younger girl were playing near each other.  The little girl was asking her parents to bring her some snowballs, and Monster decided to get in on the game by picking up the biggest snowball he could carry.  I bet you can guess where this is heading.  I was really torn at this point: On the one hand, I don't want him to hurt this little girl, but on the other hand, I want to let him make choices on his own.  I tried to stay close enough that I'd be able to intervene if he made the wrong choice.  At first he walked around behind her and held the snowball above her head.  He was thinking about dropping it on her head, then thought better of it and placed in front of her instead. He then started bringing her all the large snowballs he could find, she was so excited it was adorable.  Another smaller child started playing nearby as well, and Monster started showing him snowballs that were small enough for him to pick up and play with.  More good choices by Monster!  After the smaller children had left, Monster got to have some rougher fun as him and I threw snowballs at each other, with Monkey handing me lots of snowballs to throw at Monster.

What to do, and how to find out?

So I've started to think that it might be in Monster's (and eventually Monkey's) best interest if I start looking for a new school for him.  I have had several complaints about the school he's currently in, but never before this week have I felt like I was letting him down by keeping him there (details to come in this week's weekly review, will update with a link).  At the moment, I don't know what an "ideal" school for him even looks like, nor do I really know how to find out.  Monster has ADHD, but also potentially (probably?) a learning disability in reading and/or writing.  He can read a story at or around grade level, but has a lot of difficulty following written instructions, and a lot of difficulty writing in general.  Because he's in French Immersion, however, they can't/won't diagnose him with a learning disability, or at least not at his age.
So that brings me to my big questions at the moment:

1. How can I get a more thorough assessment of Monster's difficulties?
2. What would the "ideal" school for Monster and Monkey look like?
3. Am I doing him a disservice by insisting on keeping him in French Immersion, or will this actually help him?
4. Are there any schools in the city that would be better for him?  The province?  The country?
5. Is it worth the legal battle that would undoubtedly ensue to move him, if there is a better opportunity for him elsewhere?
6. Are there any support tools available that would help him out?  How can I convince my ex-wife to use them for him as well?

I'll be doing my best to explore these questions, and blog about whatever I find over the next few weeks.

Court

I debated quite a bit about whether I should write this post or not, but finally decided to in the hopes that it will help others going through something similar.  I had very little idea what to expect going into court, and, as a result, was nervous and forgetful when speaking to the judge.

Backstory

So there's a bit of a backstory to this post.  Bunny's brother is getting married in Florida in April, and her parents have offered to fly us and the M&Ms out for a vacation and to attend the wedding.  For any of you who are divorced with kids, you know that this means I need a consent to travel form signed by my ex-wife or a court order allowing me to travel.  So I asked my ex whether she would sign a consent to travel form.  After some back and forth, we were unable to come to any agreement on what days she would get the kids in exchange.  I was worried if it got delayed too much further, we would have trouble getting the flights/reservations we needed, so I decided to take it to court.

Process

The process for making an application in court in Alberta is pretty straightforward, Bunny and I managed to navigate the process ourselves.

1. The application forms for most things under family law are available from Family Justice Services, but it's not very clear which one I needed.  Looking through the forms in the relevant section, there was only one that had an option to ask for permission to travel, so that was the one I used.
2. The next step is, obviously, to fill the form out.  This can be quite time consuming, depending how much there is to attach.  I had to include my separation agreement, the original divorce order, as well as a thorough description of what was planned (including the addresses we intend to stay at).  At the end of the day, this whole process feels pretty useless when you realize that precisely nobody reads any of this (at least in this case, maybe there is the occasional one where they read it; I sure felt like this was a waste of time).
3. After making sure it's completed, I took it to the court and filed it.  It cost $50 to file, they asked me to choose a court date, then they stamped it, signed it, made me swear/affirm (you have the option of either swearing on a bible or affirming that what you file is true; both are equally legally binding) that it was true, and then gave me a copy of it.
4. Then I made another copy, and served one on my ex-wife.  I simply showed up at her house (well after the kids were in bed, so there was little/no chance of conflict in front of them), and rang the doorbell.  When she opened the door, I said "I have a present for you" and placed the forms in her hand, and walked away.
5. The final thing to do before court was to file an affidavit of service, in which I affirmed the date and location where I gave the papers to my ex-wife.
6. This morning rolled around, and I showed up in court.  I showed up a bit early, and spoke with the duty counsel (that's a lawyer that's on duty to help individuals not represented by lawyers in order to ensure everything runs smoothly).  She was an extremely helpful person who took notes on everything about my case, and spoke briefly with my ex-wife as well, in order to help present everything to the judge.
7. Speaking in front of the judge.  As I was the applicant, my story was the first to be told.  Duty counsel did most of the speaking, based on our earlier conversation.  Then my ex-wife's side of the story was told.  After each of our sides was presented, the judge went back and forth asking us questions.  "What times would work for you?", "Why doesn't that work for you?" etc. and so on.  At one point, as I was speaking, the duty counsel reminded me of something I had mentioned to her earlier, but forgotten to say, so I was able to add it. (Like I said, very helpful person, someone should send her a gift, but that's probably horribly inappropriate.)
8. After what felt like only 30 seconds of back and forth (I'm sure it was probably longer, but it seemed to be over in an instant) the judge said "I'm going to make an order, it's going to say this, this, and this."  And I felt like saying "Wait, I didn't get to say this, that, or that."  But that was it, no more chance to speak.
9. Then I sat and waited while the order was typed up, and then signed.  We were each given two copies (or at least I was given two, she was given at least one).  My ex-wife informed me that she intends to appeal it, though I'm not sure what grounds she believes she has for that.

Results

The bad

The kids will be spending their spring break with my ex-wife.  This is unfortunate, because I get very few non-school days with the M&Ms as it is.  Because I have them Monday afternoon through to Friday morning, I miss out on most of the school holidays (which are on Mondays and Fridays) as well as the weekends.  It really makes it hard sometimes to visit family and friends with them, and we had been planning to take a trip to visit two of my aunts and Bunny's parents over spring break.

I didn't get awarded costs.  I had asked for costs to be awarded for this application, but that got left by the wayside in the discussion about which times would work for whom.

The good

While I didn't get awarded costs, the only cost for the application was $50.  As I had agreed to pay $42 for the signing and notarizing of the consent to travel form from the start, which I now don't have to pay.  So I'm really only out $8 more at the end of the day.

I can take the M&Ms on the trip.  The judge granted permission to travel with the children for the dates I requested.

The judge was sympathetic to my argument that I don't get much non-school time with the M&Ms, and has specified that for spring break, the will return to me at 5:00 pm on the Saturday, so I will at least have Sunday with them.

Final Thoughts

After talking with Bunny about this, we've decided that instead of being upset about not being able to take the M&Ms to visit family over spring break, we're going to take a vacation for the two of us, since we haven't managed to have a honeymoon yet.  We haven't decided where to go yet, feel free to leave suggestions in the comments.

Week in review - First week on Concerta

So this week was Monster's first week on drugs.

Monday

This was Monster's pediatrician appointment, where he was prescribed Concerta to be taken once each day.  The doctor explained it to him that it wouldn't change who he is, but would help him make the decisions he wants to make.  "You can still choose not to do your schoolwork if you want, but it will be because you're choosing that, not because you're not able to focus on it."  He seemed fine with this, and didn't really ask any questions.

Tuesday

This was the first day.  The first challenge was actually swallowing the pill.  It's a tiny thing, only about a centimeter long and half that wide, but it didn't go down his throat without a bunch of complaining.  I tried explaining it to him the same way I learned a pill: "Just put it on your tongue and use your finger to push it to the back of your throat."  Then we tried water, and yogurt, and then back to the finger, only now the pill is starting to dissolve, so it tastes awful for him.  Finally I convinced him that he had to push it just a bit past the gag reflex, and it went down.  A bunch of water to wash it down and he finished his breakfast.  I had officially begun drugging my child.

It was a bit cold, and there was about 15 cm of fresh snow on the ground, so very few people had shoveled their sidewalks by the time we walked to school.  Also it was still snowing.  This made it a lot more work for the M&Ms to trudge through all this than it normally would be.  They were troopers though, and didn't complain too much.  Monster seemed a bit tired and/or despondent on the walk to school.  I'm not sure if it was the medicine, or the fresh snow (the first real snowfall of the year) or just the extra effort required to walk through the snow.  Whatever the case, naturally my mind instantly jumped on the idea that I screwed up by  medicating him, that he's going to be horribly depressed and screwed up because of the decision, and it was all my fault.  So, I dropped him off at school worrying about this, and then walked Monkey to his school, where he proceeded to alternate between being excited about getting to stomp through snow and being cranky that he had to walk through all the deep snow.

I was pretty tired during the afternoon, and I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I let Monkey watch a few extra YouTube videos in the afternoon so that I could laze around on the couch.  We drove to pick Monster up from school, me fearing the worst.  Would he have accomplished anything?  Was he horribly depressed?  Was he still completely unable to focus?  I got there, and asked Monster how his day went, and he said "good" and that's it.  I talked to his teacher, and asked how his day was, she told me that it was good, that he had finished most of his work, but was behind on some math work and asked that I help him catch up.  OK, so it wasn't the magic cure-all that everyone always hopes for, but it didn't seem to have destroyed him as a person.  Yet.

We went tobogganing after school.  It was a bit interesting to watch him, and compare him to himself in the past.  As this was the first snowfall of the year, he hadn't actually been tobogganing (or other outside play in the snow) since last year.  But he did great.  He was having fun, even though he got frustrated that the sled wouldn't go where he wanted and he kept veering off course.  He went down the hill once, and was upset that he didn't go straight, then he went the next time, went a bit straighter, and was upset that he didn't follow the same track as the first time.  Then there was the issue with Monkey walking in Monster's trails and wrecking them, and then he wasn't going as far as he wanted to.  But the amazing thing was that he stuck with it.  At no point, not even the one time he was on the verge of tears because it wasn't working properly, did he ask to go home.  I'm not sure how much this can be attributed to his other recent experiences with success after frustration in Cub Scouts, and how much can be attributed to the medicine, but it was wonderful to see.  Last year it would have been two slides down the hill, gotten frustrated that it wasn't working the way he wanted, then get mad/frustrated/beg to go home.

We finally left for home about an hour and a half later, and started doing homework.  First up, flashcards.  I've been working with him on these, and helping him stay focused from start to finish for a while now.  I don't know whether I'm happy or not to report that he did no better or worse than is typical, as far as staying focused.  Most likely the medicine was wearing off by this point though, so this was probably to be expected.  The rest of his homework went similarly, not significantly different from how it's gone in the past.

Wednesday

The second day with his new pills.  They went down much easier, still a bit uncomfortable though.  It was a bit warmer for the walk, and Monster and Monkey were both more energetic, running to and fro as we walked.  Whether this was because of the warmer air, the fact that most of the sidewalks had been shoveled, getting used to the medicine or just random mood fluctuations, I don't know.

Monster had another decent day at school.  Nothing spectacular, but not a bad day by any stretch of the imagination.  We again went tobogganing after school, with similar results but a bit less energy than Tuesday.  Homework was largely similar to Tuesday.

Cubs was fun, we brought in an old computer to dismantle.  Monster wanted to keep the motherboard and a few more pieces as a play area for his Lego.  His focus was about normal during the dismantling, and he had a lot of fun.

The most interesting part of Wednesday was story time.  To explain, just before bed, we lie down and I read Monster a story.  We're currently reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  Well, this night Monster couldn't sit still for anything.  He was up reading his posters and art projects on the wall, climbing around to look at his Lego, grabbing the bookmark to try to read what it said.  Basically completely distracted and completely fascinated by everything around him.  I don't know what to make of this: just really excited after an interesting time at Cubs, rebounding as the medication wore off, or something else entirely.

Thursday

Thursday morning both Monster and Monkey were up about 45 minutes earlier than normal.  Monster woke up first, and I'm not sure if he woke Monkey up, or if Monkey managed that on his own.  No matter, they were both in reasonably good spirits, though I worried that they would be tired and cranky by the time we got to our plans for the evening.  Today the medicine went down with almost no reaction.  Awesome.  Project teach Monster to swallow pills: Success.

The walk to school was uneventful, and Monster had another good day at school.  Maybe a bit better than the last couple of days.  Homework had a few frustrating moments as Monster wasn't paying attention.  This may have been more about my lack of patience at this point (still needed to make supper in order to get out the door on time) than his performance.

After supper, we went to the Festival of Trees downtown.  It's a big fundraiser held every year for the University Hospital Foundation.  The M&Ms had a blast, and kept having fun even though Monster's friend who was meeting us there was running late.  We did a scavenger hunt together (Monster read all the clues for us), played some hockey, decorated some cookies, and Monkey bought me a Christmas present.

Me and my stylish Christmas present from Monkey.

2014

2015

One other thing we did was to get the same picture this year as we did last year, with Dr. Deer.  Check out the difference in the M&M's moods this year, compared to last.

Friday

Friday morning, Monster was again up bright and early (I wonder if he's less exhausted from trying to regulate his behavior all day) and in good spirits.  Since Friday morning is pancake breakfast at our house, and Monkey was very disappointed that he didn't get to help last week, I woke Monkey up to give him the chance to help this week.  To my surprise, both M&Ms decided to help make pancakes.  Monster took his pill without even a comment, and it was off to school.  It was much warmer, and the kids had a lot of fun on the walk.  The Ex texted me to say she had spoken with Monster's teacher, and that Thursday and Friday were better than Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  Seems like it's been steadily improving all week then.  He even finished his art project today, not something he's normally known for doing.

Parting thoughts

I don't know how much of his improvement at school can be attributed to the medicine.  Ever other time we've taken him to the doctor and discussed his ADHD, it's improved for a bit at school, simply because he was more aware of it.  Only time will tell.  I'm going to try to post weekly updates every week on Friday or Saturday, time permitting.  I'm sure there will be plenty of times I don't finish it, and it gets posted along with the following week's updates.

Starting Out

Cast of Characters

Me:

Name: Devin
Birthdate: February 5, 1985
Age: 30

My wife:

Name: Bunny
Birthdate: June 13,  1986
Age: 29

My children (the M&Ms):

Name: Monster
Birthdate: May 31, 2007
Age: 8
Grade: 3

Name: Monkey
Birthdate: May 26, 2011
Age: 4
Grade: Pre-K

Setting

Location: Alberta, Canada
Time: Present day

The story so far

In the beginning there was nothing, no time, no space, no matter.  Then suddenly there was something, a whole lot of something.  All of the something, in fact.  Then a little bit of time passed, and eventually I was born.  This has been widely regarded as the entire purpose for which the universe was set in motion, though there is still some small disagreement on this fact.  There may have been some physics, chemistry, biology, and sociology in the intervening time, but that's not really relevant to this story.  A smaller time later the M&Ms were born.

I have an ex-wife, who is the mother of Monster and Monkey.  We separated in early 2013, when Monster was 5 years old, and Monkey was 1.  We have shared custody: in a typical week, the children are with me from Monday afternoon until Friday morning, and with her for the weekends.  I met and started seeing Bunny a few months after separating from my ex.  I wasn't looking for anything too serious at the time, but one thing led to another, and we were married earlier this year on May 30.

Monster has been diagnosed with ADHD; and we've been told that, while it's too early to diagnose him, Monkey is likely to be as well.  He struggles greatly to pay attention in school, and to sit still to do his homework, Though he's an intelligent boy, his inability to do his work has resulted in him falling behind in several areas at school (though in others, he is excelling).  Unfortunately, because of his struggles with schoolwork, he is developing a dislike of school. (Wouldn't you, if you had a constant struggle to complete tasks that everyone around you finds easy?)

Bunny and I have tried some behavioral interventions, with some limited success:

• Cub Scouts
  He started Cub Scouts earlier this year, and really enjoys it.  We (Bunny and I) had hoped that this would give him the opportunity to experience some success in his life, and that would in turn help him feel less helpless in other environments.  While I think it has done wonders for his frustration tolerance, I don't know that it has helped him feel empowered as we had hoped.
• Flashcards
  I created some digital flashcards to help him with some areas that he was struggling, primarily spelling, reading, and math.  While I think this has been successful in helping remedy some of his difficulties, it's often a bit of a struggle to get him to complete them in a timely manner.  More recently, I've started offering him incentives (one M&M candy for every three questions he doesn't get distracted) to stay focused on the task, and this has helped quite significantly.  However, the success of the flashcards has been limited, in part due to a lack of buy-in from my ex while Monster is at her house.
• Routines
  I set up morning and bedtime routines for both Monster and Monkey.  Previously it was a constant struggle to get out the door in the morning, or to get ready for bed.  While Monster knew what the expectations were (get up, get dressed, brush teeth, have breakfast, etc.) it was a constant struggle for him to figure out which he would be doing when.  Once I explained it to him that he now had a routine to complete (and once completed, is allowed to play Minecraft until time to get ready to leave).  These days, all I ever need to do to remind him to keep going is to ask "Are you finished your morning routine?" or "What's next in your routine?", and he usually gets back to it pretty well.
• Notes on his desk
  We asked his teacher to tape notes to his desk reminding him to stay seated and to ask questions when he's unsure what to do.  Previously, once he'd decided he didn't know what to do, he'd get distracted by something else and be off disrupting class.  I'm not sure how much this has helped, possibly a little.  I think he's embarrassed to ask questions so the whole class can hear, so he walks to the teacher's desk to ask in private.  While she doesn't mind this in a theoretical sense, he often gets distracted en route and ends up disrupting someone else's work.
• Breaking things up
  This was more helpful for Monkey.  It's often difficult to get Monkey to get ready to leave the house in the morning to walk to school.  I've found that by breaking it up into steps, with breaks in between for a bit of play, it makes it much more manageable.  It's difficult to get your snowsuit on and walk to school, but it's not so bad if we just get our snowsuit on and then can play.  I separated the jobs of getting dressed to go out and actually going out by about 5 minutes, and it's helped immensely.

I'm sure there are other things that we've done to try to help him, but these are the main ones I can think of right now.  Despite this, Monster is still struggling with school, and still doesn't enjoy going.  His pediatrician is worried, as are Bunny and I, that if his dislike of school continues, it will translate into a dislike of learning in general, and give him much more significant difficulties later in life. 

Because of this, after much consideration, we've decided to start him on ADHD medication.  He's now (starting as of this morning) taking 18 mg Concerta tablets each morning.  This is the first time in his life that he's had to swallow a pill whole, so that was a bit of a struggle this morning.  I remember that I struggled with this when I was younger, and the way I eventually taught myself to do it was to set it on my tongue and slide it towards the back of my throat with my finger.  It took him a few tries, and by the time he got it down he had a bad taste in his mouth because the medicine had started to dissolve, but it made it down eventually (we also tried washing it down with water, and sticking it in some yogurt, with no success).

Purpose

I'm starting this blog in part as a journal of my experiences, so I can keep track of how things are progressing.  I'm not going to stop behavioral interventions now that Monster is on medication, I'm going to keep trying to help him acquire the executive skills he's lacking, in the hope that he can get off the medication as soon as possible.  I'll keep a record of what's working and what's not working, so that I'll be able to look back and adjust as necessary.  In addition to Monster's ADHD, I intend to write about my experiences as a single dad who's responsible for most of the children's school time.  It's often difficult because I don't get very much non-school time with the M&Ms.  I've learned some ways to get relationship building and fun activities into the evenings, but it's not always easy, particularly because of Monster's difficulties in school.

Another reason is that I hope my adventures can help others.  If you're a parent struggling to deal with your child's ADHD, I hope that you can find some suggestions here that help you out.  If you're a single parent with limited non-school time with your child(ren), I feel your pain and hope you can find some suggestions here that help you.

The final reason is that I would like the input and suggestions from anyone who takes the time to read this.  If you have any thoughts or experiences that you think would help, I welcome your comments.  I'm always on the lookout for suggestions on how to strengthen my relationship with the M&Ms (and with Bunny too), as well as on how to help Monster manage his ADHD.

A final note

One last thing: I intend to write this blog with the expectation that the M&Ms will someday find it and read it.  As such, I'll do my best to keep things factual and non-judgmental, no matter how frustrated I get with something.  While I don't plan on complaining about my ex on here, I will discuss her involvement in things where it's relevant.  Please keep the comment section family friendly and respectful:  "I don't think that's effective because reasons" or "Have you tried this instead?" are both helpful comments while "You're stupid for doing that" is unhelpful and will likely be deleted.  Swear words are out altogether.  Use your judgement (because I'll use mine): if it's not something you would say in front of your, or someone else's children, don't say it here.