The boys got to visit with Gavin for about 30 minutes today, while waiting for him to be picked up. I hate using the word visitation, but that's what it reminds me of.  Gavin only returns home when there is no other option.  These visits are as brief as possible, completely controlled and tightly monitored. We have to watch everything that Gavin says and does because we have been caught off guard too many times before.  This particular visit was largely uneventful and very brief.  The boys seemed to have coped well and did pretty well the rest of the night.  I wish things didn't have to be this way but it is what it is.  :-(

Lizze and I have experienced something today that most people will never experience in the course of parenthood.  Let me back up and give you some background.  As you may or may not know, our almost 13 year old Gavin, has been diagnosed with something called Reactive Attachment Disorder.  Without going into huge details about that, I'll just sum it up for you the best way I can. Keep in mind that this may be different for every person. However, in Gavin's particular case, he's not capable of making attachments to people, at least in a healthy way.  For Gavin, there's always an angle and it's always about him. He's a child without a conscience, literally incapable of feeling remorse for his actions. The doctors tell us that he is…

On Friday, we have our very first, official wraparound meeting.  This meeting will take place at Gavin's school and involve teachers, family, doctors and therapists. Basically, this will be about identifying our needs as well as ways that they can help support us. I'm not sure what can really help accomplished here, since what is really needed is Gavin in residential care. Having said that, it's a process and one that is required in order to proceed.  I'm going to have to speak with the school about who we want at the meeting and who we don't want involved.  Right now, I have my concerns about one person and I contemplating removing this person from the team.  That may seem counter productive but in the end, it's our team and…

Elliott pulled this out of his backpack this morning before going to school.  I just love it.  This shows that he's focusing on something other than Mario for once.  I thought this was really cool and wanted to be sure to share this with all of you. :-)

Do you remember the old cartoon,  The Gummy Bears.  Remember how they are bouncing here and there and everywhere? Elliott and Emmett have been channeling these high flying and extremely energetic bears since about 5 o'clock this morning.  They are in super duper hyper mode and literally bouncing off of everything in sight, including each other.  I'm going on the record as saying that I wish I could have a fraction of their energy. Even a fraction of a fraction would last me awhile.  I have no idea what the heck happened while they were sleeping but holy crap, it's going to be a really long day.

So we had our appointment with Dr.  Reynolds yesterday.  The main discussion centered around Elliott and how's he's doing on the anti-anxiety medication Tenex. We went over all of our concerns and ultimately decided, with Dr.  Reynolds, to pull the plug on the Tenex.  He will have to be weened off over the next 10 days. We are also going to play around with his ADHD medication and see if it's really benefiting him at all.  When I say playing around, I just mean withholding it for a few days and see how he does.  This medication is very fast acting and can be started or stopped at any point.  Hopefully, we can balance Elliott out and help him to get some traction once again.