Special Needs Mommy

I'm a Special Needs Mommy. What does this mean to most people? Nothing. No one can truly understand what being a special needs Mommy is, unless they are a Special Needs Mommy (or Daddy) themselves.
We were told by so many specialists to do this and that to help Galen. We've done everything they've ever asked us to do, even when it went against my gut feelings.
So, what I'm going to say, may surprise most of you.
Don't follow what you're told to do, unless it feels right to you.
We followed everything we were told to do. What did this do to Galen? He still doesn't talk, but he does know how to communicate semi-efficiently now. You might think this is due to his therapists. But you'd be wrong. He's been in therapy since June 2015. He's learned to communicate through me and daddy working hard to get him where he is now. It's even harder when Daddy is also a "special needs" person. I can see things that he can't see and vice versa.
Galen has grown so much in the past couple of months. Ever since I decided to fully homeschool him over the summer. He still attended the Preschool Program we'd been recommended by countless therapists for 4 days and it went so badly, that I knew I was right all along, and utterly refused to take him back.
That was August 2016. He'd only attended for a grand total of 5 1/2 weeks. And in that time, he developed horrible habits, like pulling hair, hitting, kicking, etc, when he's upset, rather than trying to communicate with us. The teachers let him get away and didn't think it was necessary to contact his parents anytime he got sick or injured. This is insanity. It would be terrible with "normal" children. Just imagine if you have a child who can't talk and doesn't respond to his or her name getting away or vomiting and not being able to tell you. Both of these things happened with that program. My gut had always said not to take him and I ignored it.
Lesson learned.
Galen now looks me in the eyes a lot of the time, and while he's still doing the inappropriate behaviors, he's listening to me better about not doing it. He loves learning and is being involved in absolutely everything these days. We never used to take him out and about because it scared him and he hated it (and would have meltdowns and we couldn't understand what was going wrong). Now we take him everywhere with us and he's so happy. I keep telling him that I didn't take him places because he hated it so much, and was so afraid, and now that he isn't, he goes everywhere with us. He smiles so widely.
Galen is one of the happiest children I have ever met, most of the time, that is. But he was very solemn and depressed when I was making him do things that I thought were wrong (and clearly he agreed but couldn't tell me). We still make him go to therapy, even though he puts up a fight, and it is helping. It's just not helping with his speech.

I love hearing the success stories of special needs children, but I know it's not likely to occur with Galen. I will never give up hope though. Even if he never speaks "normally", as long as he's healthy and happy, that's all that matters.
But, it's incredibly difficult. Incredibly frustrating. Incredibly depressing some days. And there's not many people out there that really understand.
So, when you find a support group, grab ahold of it, and stay with them. We recently started attending actual homeschooling events, instead of just kinda being "part of the group" but in the shadows. Now, Galen's in a group called Tinkergarten and is 4 weeks into it, and actually starting to participate! And he's 2 weeks into a dance class with a teacher willing to work with him, and is not melting down the whole class! This is a huge improvement. All thanks to Mommy and Daddy doing what's right. And Flint's always along for the ride, giving Galen snuggles and kisses and trying to get him to participate more.

#Tinkergarten

Dance Class

The most important advice I can ever relay to you: You know your child best. Don't let other people (even specialists) bully you into something you don't feel is right for your child. Remember not to take everything for granted.

Huge Update

So it's been awhile since I updated.
We haven't managed to get the swing built yet, but I did finally make a sensory bottle for the kids.
Momzi, PawPaw, and Grandma moved to Las Vegas. We helped them pack and got some free stuff from them. We've visited their storage units a couple times in the past couple months. Galen and Flint really enjoy being able to run around it freely while we work.

It's amazing how much can change in a month. Galen's really enjoying being outside all the time and is exploring more things, like daddy's ladder. We've had a huge problem with him being scared of the fenced-in backyard, so we had to go in the front yard all the time. Well, I left the back door open, after locking the cats up, and Galen finally came out on his own accord, and so now, he'll go into the backyard more often and have lots of fun.

Now for probably the biggest news since my last post. HISD finally got back to us about getting Galen into the preschool for children with disabilities program last week. He officially started Mon. I haven't posted about it. I was terrified that he'd be miserable all day. I've always wanted to do homeschooling, but all these specialists said it would be wonderful for Galen, so I felt like I had to at least try. Well, day 3 has come and gone now. None of these days have actually been the full time because of previously scheduled appointments and his normal therapy days. He's tried matching, and exploring the room, and only cried when it was nap time (which he doesn't do) on Mon (he hasn't been there long enough the other days), because the lights were turned off.
Yesterday he had a make-up therapy day and played with water in a bucket and actually enjoyed it. This is a win, a small one, but a win. He's petrified of baths still here. I bought a water toy for him, which we set up tonight, but he was scared of it. I have faith he'll love it in a few days.

Now, for the astonishingly good news...

Galen ate a blueberry waffle and considered a cutie orange at school today. He even tried to help clean up. And he isn't throwing his food on the floor before eating it either! Then, at therapy, we did food stuff again, and after avoiding the jalapeno Cheetos for the past 4 tries, he finally tried it and just kept eating them.

So, it would seem, Galen is doing awesome at school, and while I wanted to homeschool him, this may be the best place for him. Of course, I think we'll re-evaluate when he would start kindergarten. But by then, he'll hopefully be talking, and will be able to give us input on what he'd like to do.
It's been extremely weird without him here with us. But, we've made astonishing progress on cleaning up the sunroom and hanging out with Flint by herself and she even played outside by herself, because she never minded the backyard and we can see her.
The sunroom is slowly being converted into a kid's playroom. It will need some sort of air (window a/c) to make it more comfortable, especially with the horrid summer ahead. But, it'll be nice to be able to have a room they can really play in year round, that's not just a bedroom.