Life and Times of The Johnston family: A Wellness Visit and a Happy Halloween!!

So this past week the kids and I stayed at the house, just as a change of pace. We did Halloween worksheets for school this week and it worked out beautifully! Lizzy's theater class had a Halloween party on Monday that she got to wear her costume to, which she reported having a great time and that lots of kids said they loved her costume. ;) Tuesday morning Lizzy had her 7 year wellness check and would you believe she managed to gain nearly 5 pounds this past year?!?! This solidified her diagnosis of Celiac Disease. She's about 51 inches tall, both her height and weight were about the 50th percentile....this has never happened in her life!! Her doctor and I were thrilled!! We talked about her worsening ADHD behaviors and decided to put her on Adderall to help. We also increased her anxiety medication to see if that would help as well. She also agreed to start taking it in pill form as apposed to the liquid she's been using. It's ironic because the first few times she had a lot of anxiety about taking her anxiety pill. But she's managed it like a champ! Her doctor doesn't even concern herself with Lizzy's academic level or "how she's doing in school" other than behavior wise. She did ask her what grade she was doing this year, and didn't even seem surprised when Lizzy told her that she's doing 3rd grade this year. She did get to listen to Lizzy read a book she brought, and talked with her about it. But other than that it was just the normal check her over. With her being on Adderall we have to go in every month for a medication follow-up for a while, but if it helps her gain some control of herself than it's well worth it! Devin came and did sooooo awesome! He didn't even need the kindle or anything! He just looked at their books and kids' magazines. The rest of the week was pretty laid back.
Saturday was finally Halloween and the kids woke up unbelievably early! Lizzy gets so worked up about holidays she's like a hyper squirrel on caffeine!! Who also has little to no control over itself.....it's exhausting!! In the morning she went with Tony to get some maintenance stuff done on his work truck, while I got stuff ready for the annual Halloween party. Then after they got back we all went out to a gluten free bakery in Kaysville and let Lizzy pick out a couple Halloween treats, she got a ghost cookie and a spider web brownie! We let Devin get a ghost mini cupcake as well. She was so happy!! Then we came home and let them eat their treat while watching "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" that we always watch on Halloween. Then the Halloween party commenced! We did arts and crafts and games and had treats. It was super fun! Then they had lunch while watching a couple of Halloween shows, Then we were off to Tony's parent's house for their Halloween get together! Lizzy had a great time playing with some of her cousins. Devin did pretty well but about half way through he got really upset and told me that "his mind was broken" those were his exact words. He said he wanted to be alone and watch a movie, he was getting really worked up so I agreed and he holed up in the sitting room off the master bedroom and watched The Care Bear Movie. I got to have a great chat with Alicia. Then we came home got the kids ready and went out trick or treating! The kids did so well this year! Again Lizzy outlasted Devin but by the time we'd made our loop they were both ready to be done! They got another good haul though! I first found all the candy that isn't gluten free and gave it to Devin or the mommy/daddy tax then separated it all up. We stayed upstairs and the kids "helped" hand out glow sticks to some trick or treaters. We let them have a few pieces of candy then put them to bed. They were still up at 5 am this morning....dang day light savings time! We put Halloween away, and got the few Thanksgiving things we have out and the kids enjoyed playing with the fall and first Thanksgiving Little People sets.

The fun Halloween party!