i-earned-my-stripes

[i-earned-my-stripes]

Getting diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and then getting on meds is just a series of discovering how barely functional you were before.

Like, example, I'm in my first year of grad school. This is my 17th year of consecutive schooling.

And did you know that assignments are easier if you do the work for them? Cause I would try and that was impossible before, but now that I am on meds? I have read every single textbook and reading required for each assignment before doing the assignments.

Also, essay writing? Making an outline and doing the research beforehand? That stuff makes writing an essay 100000000 times easier. I am currently flying through my final essay that is due tonight by midnight and I have been typing that paper with a speed and ease that I didn't know was physically possible to achieve!

OH, and even though I have been fixated on this paper all day, I haven't forgotten to eat? Like, it's not been proper meals, because I am kinda scared that if I take a break for more than a few minutes at a time this whole thing will disappear like the myth I thought it was my whole life, but I have still been eating food and drinking water throughout the whole day!!!

I would get stressed out about school before, but not because I thought the assignments themselves were hard, but because doing anything to help for the assignments was an impossible feat and so I would just do the assignments without doing the work and I managed to get good grades. NOW? NOW I AM FEEL LIKE A MASTER AT DOING SCHOOL WORK

I feel like I've unlocked a whole new set of abilities to master school that everyone was using but me, and I just never realized it.

[i-earned-my-stripes]

I freaking LOVE working with kids.

So I currently have an injury to the soft tissue of my right shoulder. What tissue and in what way (and even how it got injured) is a total mystery right now, but it's being investigated. Slowly. But, to not make it worse and (hopefully) let it heal, I'm in a shoulder immobilizer and just straight up can NOT use my arm. Well, because of this, I can't work with my darling one year olds and am being floated around in the older classrooms where lifting children is not crucial to my job. And boy has it resulted in some interesting conversations with preschoolers!

Yesterday

3 year old: Why are you wearing that? *points to sling*

Me: I hurt my shoulder and this is helping it get better.

3: Did you broked your arm?

Me: No, I just hurt my shoulder. I can't move it without it hurting.

3: Oh. Can I see it?

Me: ...yeah? But the booboo is inside my arm, so you won't see anything. *proceeds to show normal looking shoulder*

3: *clearly disappointed* oh

Today

Same 3 year old: Why are you wearing that? *points to shoulder*

Me: I hurt my shoulder.

3 year old #2: Why?

3: Can I see it?

Me: *ignoring the why cause how do you answer that???* Yeah, but you won't really see anything, cause it's inside my shoulder. *shows normal looking shoulder*

3 #2: Why is it inside?

3: Can I see it tomorrow?

Me: ..........🤨

[i-earned-my-stripes]

You ever have a time that things with your music line up SOOOO well, it sounds like it could have been planned, and yet it WASN'T.

Example:

I was leaving a little late today to get to an appointment. I ran to the car, drove to our dumpster to throw out my room trash, and then immediately left for my appointment. GPS said I would be arriving 1 minute early, if lucky, so I was STRESSED!

As I take out the trash, my Bluetooth connects, so I get in the car to music playing. Autoplay pulled up Remember Them from Epic: The Cyclopes Saga as I am driving away to my appointment, which results in this:

Odysseus: We must move quickly

Me: I know.

Odysseus: We don't have much time.

Me: I KNOW ODYSSEUS! I CAN SEE THAT!

[i-earned-my-stripes]

Watching/being a fan of the qsmp has just straight up ruined me. The number of times I have almost quoted it at work is ridiculous! Legitimately.

I work with one year olds and everyday (provided it is safe temp wise and it's not raining) we go outside to play, and since it's summer, all the kids need sunscreen before going outside. Some of my kids love it, as they get to sit on my lap as I rub the sunscreen into their exposed skin and make funny noises. Others, don't. And the ones that don't I tell them everyday how sunscreen is important to keep us safe. AND I KID YOU NOT, I HAVE TO STOP MYSELF EVERYDAY FROM TELLING THEM THAT THE SUN IS A FALSE GOD BUT A TRUE THREAT!!! THAT CANT BE THE REASON I TELL MY KIDS WHY SUNSCREEN IS IMPORTANT AND I HAVE TO PHYSICALLY STOP MYSELF EVERY SINGLE DAY FROM SAYING THIS!!!!!

[i-earned-my-stripes]

I mentioned this to my therapist and OH BOY IS IT SO MUCH WORSE THAN I EVEN REALIZED!!!

Me: I'm doing so good with my social anxiety and just anxiety in general! I'm so proud of myself!

Also me: *is on the brink of a panic attack when trying to interact with store employees to buy a new laptop*

[i-earned-my-stripes]

Me: I'm doing so good with my social anxiety and just anxiety in general! I'm so proud of myself!

Also me: *is on the brink of a panic attack when trying to interact with store employees to buy a new laptop*

[i-earned-my-stripes]

Quotes from today!

Kid: *crying*

Me: What's wrong?

Kid: Mama

Me: I know you want mama, but she's not here yet. She'll be here soon.

Kid: *starts crying harder* Mama

Me: My dear, I do not control the rate at which your mother gets here, so I can't help with that.

Kid: *breaks down even more* Mama

Me: Is there something I can do to help you?

Kid: *snuffles* Ice

Me: *starts laughing* I like the thought bud, but I don't think booboo ice will help with emotional pain.

Kid: *runs over, arms up high, whining like something is wrong*

Me: *gets on kids level to hug* Oh love what's wrong?

Kid: *stops whining and points at counter* Nak

Me: *through laughter* s-snack? Bud I just washed my hands to get it. Give me a minute.

*kiddo then proceeds to stand right next to me the entire time I prepared snack, just staring up at the counter*

Me: *getting ready to head home*

Kid: *walks over on knees, hand up in the air*

Me: oh are you giving me a hive five goodbye? Here Hive Five!

Kid: *smiles, turns to the rest of class and starts waving* ba-bye

Me: *again, dying of laughter* oh are you going home with me? My dear I don't think your mom would like that

*the little dear proceeded to follow me to the door and then started crying when I walked out without her*

[i-earned-my-stripes]

The more I've worked with my kids, the more I learn about how WEIRD they are. And it's hilarious (sometimes). I love them, but it completely catches my coworkers who don't work with them on a daily basis off guard.

Example:

Me: *quietly ripping up a bagel and cutting a banana into bite-sized pieces for breakfast*

Coworker: You know, your kids are older enough and the food is soft enough you would be able to give them breakfast as is. It would save you time during meals.

Me: Theoretically yes. But if I give these kids non cut up food, they will proceed to take the smallest nibbles you have ever seen instead of normal bites, and thats if they try.

Coworker: ...what?

Me: Yeah, it's like they don't understand how to take a bite of something unless it fits in their mouth entirely.

Coworker, starting to laugh: Seriously?

Me: Yeah. The last time I gave them something whole, some took tiny nibbles, and the others just stared at the food, occasionally poking it. This actually saves me time because they can actually eat more than a half inch of banana in thirty minutes.

This cause my coworker to just die of laughter for a solid minute.

[i-earned-my-stripes]

Yes

Ok gamers kind of went off with custom emotes, that shit rules

[i-earned-my-stripes]

Weather App: Sunset is at 7:14

Me, at 7:15, glaring at the sun: Then why are you still up!!!!

[i-earned-my-stripes]

I adore my job, no matter how....gross and needlessly sharing my kids can be, but in the spirit of Valentine's day (happy Valentine's day BTW, all my kiddos were wearing pink and red, IT WAS SO CUTE!!!!) here is a noncomprehensive list of the terms of endearment I use with my kids.

My Friend

Kiddo

Darling

Love

Lovie

Lovely

Sweetie

Sweetheart

Sweets

Sugarpop

Girlie

Girliepop

Little dude

Bud

Buddy

Sure, that's only fifteen terms, but that's just the ones I can remember because they are the ones that come out most frequently. It is literally growing every single day. And I mean. Every. Single. Day. I just open my mouth when I go to address the kids, and see what comes out of my mouth. No forethought. Just... words.

[i-earned-my-stripes]

Have I mentioned I love my job? Cause I love my job! I really really do. There is so many things about working at a daycare that I adore, many of which I will eventually share, but one of the most amusing ones in my opinion is learning what words you say a lot.

What do I mean? I'll tell you.

One year olds are learning how to language for the first time, and the best way to learn how to language, is through repetition. We use this to our benefit by choosing simple phrases to make our and our little friends lives easy. Example: "No" when someone is trying to take our toys, "Beep beep" when someone is in our way, and "please", "thank you", "more" and "all done" for fairly clear reasons. It's worked! Mostly. We have less issues with friends lashing out and hitting because of friends taking toys, and our kiddos are learning how to wait for others to move/move when in others way rather than just to push them aside.

Now here's where the funny thing is. If there are certain phrases you say a lot, whether you realize it or not, they will learn it! And repeat it! And these are not usually our simple phrases as above.

Today, I was doing our pre-lunch diaper changes, and my coteacher informed me that one of our friends had a stinky one for me. Yeah, it's natural and all, but that doesn't mean we like having to change them. So I responded, "Wonderful." Only for a little friend to just look up and go "Wonderful!" Only he's one, so it was more like "waundehdull". We started dying of laughter.

Another example, my coteacher asked me to check for someone's pacifier, and I responded "Absolutly" cause apparently that's my go to response, and one of our friends just went "ahsloolee".

Are these really mild? Yeah, cause neither of us are really the type of person to say anything not suitable for kid ears, but it's hilarious to just be talking and have a little one just parrot your words back at you.

[i-earned-my-stripes]

Yeah absolutely!

TL;DR: If there was ever any doubt about ADHD and ASD being genetic, my family proves it is. The entirety of my mom's side of the family (40+ people) have both, just completely undiagnosed. We've already had the same realization when it came to my family and EDS, which is why it took so long for anyone to go get diagnosed with anything, cause EDS, ADHD, and ASD were completely normal for my mom's family.

ALRIGHT EVERYONE WE CAN GO HOME I HAVE COMPLETE PROOF NOW THAT ABOUT ADHD AND AUTISM BEING GENETIC NO MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT IT!!!!

I'm kidding, I'm kidding, but seriously, my mom's side of the family lives several states away, and quite a few of them... dont get along with each other as far as I'm aware, so I don't really know most of them. My mom does, cause, well, she grew up with them. Well, today, I had a convo with my mom about stuff that's happening on her side of family, and you'll never guess what she mentioned!! Turns out, her whole family has ADHD and is on the spectrum. The more she learns about how her ADHD and autism affect her, the more she realizes that the reason she thought all this was completely normal is because it is COMPLETELY NORMAL for her family. We're talking 40+ people all directly related that all had the same experiences.

Now, we've already had a realization like this when we figured out that literally every woman on this same side of this family has EDS, but I can't stop laughing at this. It makes SOOO much more sense why it took so long for anyone to look into a diagnosis for anything, cause everytime anyone started poking around at the possibility that we weren't "normal" by society standards, they just point out how there can't be anything "weird" with us since everyone else in the family is like that.

[i-earned-my-stripes]

ALRIGHT EVERYONE WE CAN GO HOME I HAVE COMPLETE PROOF NOW THAT ABOUT ADHD AND AUTISM BEING GENETIC NO MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT IT!!!!

I'm kidding, I'm kidding, but seriously, my mom's side of the family lives several states away, and quite a few of them... dont get along with each other as far as I'm aware, so I don't really know most of them. My mom does, cause, well, she grew up with them. Well, today, I had a convo with my mom about stuff that's happening on her side of family, and you'll never guess what she mentioned!! Turns out, her whole family has ADHD and is on the spectrum. The more she learns about how her ADHD and autism affect her, the more she realizes that the reason she thought all this was completely normal is because it is COMPLETELY NORMAL for her family. We're talking 40+ people all directly related that all had the same experiences.

Now, we've already had a realization like this when we figured out that literally every woman on this same side of this family has EDS, but I can't stop laughing at this. It makes SOOO much more sense why it took so long for anyone to look into a diagnosis for anything, cause everytime anyone started poking around at the possibility that we weren't "normal" by society standards, they just point out how there can't be anything "weird" with us since everyone else in the family is like that.

[i-earned-my-stripes]

I can't tell if I'm just super emotional because I'm getting over being sick, or if I am just an emotional person, but I legit was fighting tears on the drive home from work today cause IM JUST SO PROUD OF MY KIDS!!!

Today was my first day back after being out for a week. Two separate bugs are sweeping through the center at the moment, and I was the only one of my coworkers who was unlucky enough to catch both at the exact same time. So my kids have had a week to grow, and usually, there isn't a lot of change in one week. BUT THESE KIDS DID SO GREAT AND IM SO PROUD OF THEM THAT IF I DONT TELL ABOUT IT I MIGHT PHYSICALLY BURST!!!!

1. One of our kiddos is a really sweet, generally gentle kid, but we have had a problem of him getting super aggressive. Granted, he almost never is the instigator, but he will start throwing hands the moment his buttons get pushed too hard. So, we've really started focusing on teaching him to use words when our friends encroach on our space, try to take our toys, etc. Last week, right before I got sick, was the first time he used his words before going to hit. It was super sweet and cute and I almost cried. I'll tell about that more in detail if interested, but TODAY!! TODAY HE SPENT THE WHOLE DAY LOUDLY SHOUTING NO AT HIS FRIENDS WHO WERE TRYING TO TAKE HIS TOYS!! AND HE DID IT MULTIPLE TIMES EACH TIME BEFORE EVEN TRYING TO HIT (by which time we were usually able to intervene).

2. One of our older ones (~18 months) is a really sweet player. He has older siblings, so this is to be expected, as younger siblings frequently learn a bit faster from watching their older siblings. Well, before I got sick, he would frequently come up to me and just pass a toy back and forth together. He'd try to do this with other friends, but would end up too upset that his friend wouldn't pass the toy back, so he doesn't do that as much anymore. Well, today, he came up to me as I was sitting on the floor with two little people, smacked them together a few times and then gave them to me. INSTEAD OF WAITING FOR ME TO TAKE MY TURN LIKE USUAL, He then turned, grabbed two animals and started smacking them together a bit. After about a minute, he turned back to me, gave me his toys and took mine and then went back to play! HE WAS A) SHOWING ME HOW TO PLAY, B) TAKING TURNS WITH MULTIPLE TOYS, AND C) ENGAGING IN PARALLEL PLAY WITH ME!!!!! NONE OF THOSE ARE USUALLY NOT SEEN UNTIL A FEW MONTHS AFTER TURNING 2!!!! AND!!!! AND!!! AND!!! He recognized that not all of his classmates are at his level and he was engaging in play with them in ways that wouldn't frustrate him. Like, he spent about 10 minutes playing chase and peekaboo and what not with one of our ~14 month olds.

3) For the two weeks before I got sick, I've consistently had a fight with one of our kiddos about washing hands. He loves washing his hands, so I don't know why it's been a fight, but he would refuse to wash his hands before and after eating. I'd have to physically bring him over to the sink and almost wrestle with him just to get him to cooperate. Again, he loves washing his hands. He'll be smiling and laughing the whole time, but I'd have to fight to get him to do so. Today? Some slight petulance and resistance, but no fight!!

[i-earned-my-stripes]

I waited six days (two days church babysitting and four work shifts) to update just to get a wide survery of children's reactions to my boot, or my booboo shoe as I've been calling it so my little ones can understand it, and here are my favorite reactions.

1) A nine month old tried to lay on my boot and and than looked at me in utter betrayal when her "pillow" (ie. My boot) was not soft.

2) My boot got sat on, not by the kiddo I predicted would do it, but it still got sat on, and it took a little convincing to get her off me so that I could stand up.

3) A little one did in fact use my boot to pull themselves up in a standing position (again, not the one I predicted) and they were so fascinated by the felt lining my boot has they spent the next few minutes holding into the top of my boot playing with the lining.

4) One little dude could not comprend why I wasn't wearing matching shoes like everyone else, and would repeatedly come up to me and just go "A shoe!" While pointing at my boot, and then point at my other shoe and repeat "a shoe". He would then go around the room pointing out all the others in the room wearing matching shoes, and then comeback to me and repeat the process. It really felt like he was trying to say "what the heck are you doing Ms. Ace? Everyone else has matching shoes! Pull yourself together!"

5) One of our younger ones has yet to figure out how to feel a new object gently, so he got curious, ran up and hit my boot as hard as he could. I just went "Oh be careful bud. Ms. Ace has a big booboo on her foot, so she is wearing this booboo shoe to keep her safe." Bud froze for a moment staring at my shoe, before EXTREMELY slowly and gently poking my shoe with his finger. I've never seen this child move so slowly, gently and intentionally. It was very cute.

6) Upon seeing this interaction, one of our older ones loudly asked "CAN I POKEY???" Which had me dying.

7) Someone was fascinated by the velcro on my boot holding it all together and then tried to take the shoe off to investigate more.

8) I spent about 30 minutes with some of our preschoolers, and one of them saw my boot, froze, asked what happened, and then spent the rest of his time with me making sure none of his friends hurt Ms. Ace's booboo.

9) One of our two year olds tried to give me the ice pack she was using on her foot for a booboo to me for my foot.

And finally,

10) one of the little ones who I rarely see and usually avoids me cause they are shy spent all weekend telling their mom about how Ms. Ace has a booboo.

[i-earned-my-stripes]

So, if yall don't know, which there is three (?) people who do, so probably not. I unwillingly tried to sled down my stairs without a sled (translation: I fell, but that's less fun), and got injured, so I haven't been at work for roughly the last two weeks. I go back on Wednesday, which I am very excited for, cause I REALLY miss my little ones.

The "problem"?

I have to wear a boot for a little to keep my ankle safe while it heals and to prevent more injury. Physically, I'll be fine working. I just have zero idea how one year olds are going to react to me being missing for two weeks, and then showing up with a boot the size of them. I can't wait to see how Wednesday will go.