The Real Deal

No school Monday. Some of us slept in. Sat around in pajamas. Kids got breakfast on their own. Television was on. Lazy day schedule.

We did have a morning date with our neighbor, a dear lady who is just about ninety years young and loves our family - God bless her. The six of us (Stan was at work, and Fred was at school) strolled up the driveway and over to Miss L's back porch where she met us and insisted that we did not have to take off our wet sneakers (from walking through the dewy front yard) - see how much she loves us! We made our way into her living room where everything is 'just so' and she kept reminding me that she loves having children in her house and that my kids were okay to be touching her photos and knick-knacks; so I relaxed and put Baby H on the floor where he crawled around with Eli keeping a close eye on him.

It was at that point that I noticed Sierra: not sitting, bopping around the room picking up one keepsake after another, rolling on the floor, slithering under the glass-topped coffee table, getting up close and personal with the grand-father clock and then asking incessant questions about it. And it all clicked: the kids got breakfast on their own and I wasn't there to administer her morning medication.

Sierra has been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficient Hyperactivity Disorder) as well as ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder). I prefer the label ES for Extra Spunky, but as of yet that is not a recognized medical condition. At any rate, medication is prescribed to help her learn to manage her hyperactive behaviors, and it works for her. While the idea of children on medication is not my ideal, when it is proven helpful to my kids I am in favor of it.

Back to our neighborly visit where after covering every inch of the living room on her belly, Sierra found a length of lavender ribbon. After her excitement abated somewhat, she was able to nicely ask our friend if she might keep the ribbon scrap; and of course she was able to do so. For the next ten minutes Sierra twirled in circles around the room with that ribbon, making up dances and stories, and then wrapped it around her fingers and arm. Our visit was soon over and the girls and Baby H and I went from there on a walk.

While Samara and I strolled along with the baby, Sierra ran ahead jumping to reach branches hanging low and stopping to look for acorns on the sidewalk. With each of her finds, she would run back to the stroller and share and then take off again. The estimated distance that we walked was about 1.5 miles, the estimated distance that Sierra ran was about 3 miles.

By the time we returned to the house to put Baby H down for a nap, it was getting close to lunch time and while I considered having Sierra take her medicine then, I reconsidered since we had no where else to go and she seemed to be managing okay without it. Knowing that she would be extra spunky required me to be aware that extra grace might possibly need to be extended to her as we went through the day.

As Stan and I have noticed, Sierra is not extremely distracted, but is VERY distracting to others around her. This was the case as the five of us sat down to lunch. It seemed that no matter what any of us did, or didn't do, or said Sierra had a comment to make. And her comments apparently needed to be made while she was standing up or climbing on her chair with a mouth full of food. At one point she was excused from the table and then invited back when the rest of us had finished so that she could complete her meal in peace.

After lunch she and Samara wanted to watch television, but even before the first commercial break Sierra was turning somersaults across the floor and back again. That sort of play is encouraged to happen in the downstairs play room, so she was sent packing. She reappeared for a snack and then decided to practice her multiplication facts.

From the other room she could be heard singing through all thirty-five of those facts; and it seemed as though there was little thought going on - just a lot of "singing." But she did stick with it and then came and asked me to quiz her. Baby H and I were on the floor playing - not a situation that induced focus and concentration, but Sierra was able to answer twenty-five of the math facts correctly - that was an improvement from the day before. So we celebrated a bit and then I asked Sierra to put the math cards away.

Apparently the burst of focus it took to work through the math facts took all of her energy. Watching her struggle to gather the math cards - while being side-tracked with what Baby H was playing with on the floor, then find the baggie in which they are kept - while crawling around on the floor under the kitchen table to find it and some stray craft items her sister had dropped, then put the cards - some of them had dropped along the way from the living room to the kitchen in her journey and she needed to retrace her steps - in the baggie, and finally close up the baggie and put it back on the kitchen counter - while arguing with her brother about whether or not he had homework to do - it became evident that this was the real Sierra. The Sierra without her medication. The manifestation of what it's like to live with ADHD - the Real Deal.