We put up the Christmas tree today and I was amazed at how fast London became stressed and over stimulated. Kelly brought in our little people nativity and the pieces of our prelit tree and London was pinging!

As Kelly was putting the tree together I pointed out to him London was getting more and more overstimulated. Kelly stopped and put London on his lap and started talking calm to him. London's whole body was shaking. I did not expect him to get stimulated to this extent. We had prepped the boys about the decorations and tree, but I guess it was not enough.

He became even more uncoordinated, his moves were jerky, and his chatter was rapid and non-stop. By the time bedtime came around Kelly and I were exhausted!

I tried to read the boys a story and they were all pinging and could not focus. I put the book down and started doing deep pressure pushing from elbow to wrist and then ankle to knee. Amazingly enough it worked on all three and they were able to focus on the story. London was able to stop chattering that he had not been able to control all day. Interesting...

Well, I am back to blogging after a very long break. Unfortunately I just didn't have it in me and when the boys go to bed at 7pm I flop on the couch mentally exhausted. Here recently I have gotten my mojo back! If I find the time I might publish some older posts I started and never finished.

I felt back in July the boys had made progress over the past year and then Kristofer started kindergarten on July 29th and London reverted back almost to day one. It was at that point I threw up my hands and said, "Clearly, I am not doing something right and gave up until we could get to The Attachment and Bonding Center of Ohio. (abcofohio.net) This center is ran by Dr. Gregory Keck who wrote Adopting the Hurt Child and Parenting the Hurt Child. We go on Monday, November 30th for an evaluation and from there we will set up therapy with Arleta James. I have been following a family's blog who has been seeing her since November of last year and has had great results.

I have decided to blog about this to help other adoptive families as well as keep our family and friends updated. Here our some of our concerns:

London
*Still tantrums every morning Kelly leaves for work. I think there is great fear Kelly will never come back.
*Very oppositional and disagreeable.
*Not as attached to me as he should be. This is typical because all the women he has known in his life (birth mother and orphanage workers) have left his life so he is just waiting for me to walk out of his life too. Not to mention we went to Russia twice to visit and then finally brought him home with us. Essentially we already walked out twice on him.
*Likes to control
*Has great fear of never eating again.
*Gets over stimulated very easily causing tantrums.
*Chatters non-stop and is very repetitive. If he asked for juice he keeps asking over and over until it is in his hand. This makes for a very stressful environment for those around him.
*Can not relax. When I am walking to the living room after he wakes up from nap he puts his head on my shoulder and twists so he can see what is coming.
*Very fearful of anything and everything new. Cries or tantrums over it.
*Is so demanding and controling of attention it is hard to focus on Kristofer and Kolton's needs.

Kristofer
*Gets very stressed when his brother tantrums and we need help bringing his stress down.
*Likes to control
*Back talking a lot.

Kolton
*Has trouble with eye contact.
*Is getting attached, but I don't think he is fully there.