Chilliwack Bruins

Yesterday at 3pm we received 3 free tickets to the Chilliwack Bruins game last night. When Rawley found out he was so excited. A few years ago we went to quite a few games. That was back when we were living with my dad. We didn't have to pay rent then or make my new car payments. We don't get to do much stuff like this anymore unless we win tickets or have nice people give them to us. So last night was a treat.

~ The guys warming up before the game~

~My cute little man in his Bruins T-shirt~

~Bruiser~

~Rawley sitting off by himself (we are not cool anymore)~


~Picture Rawley took~

~Rawley hanging out with all his new buddies~

The game was pretty bad for the most part. Bruins were not playing all that great. By the third period they it was 3-1 for Tri-City. With 5 minutes left a lot of people started to leave. I always hate it when people do that. If you bought the tickets you are wasting your money walking out before it is over. If you received the tickets free then you appear very ungrateful. I have and will never leave a game before it is over. Anyway, too bad for them. With 2 minutes left the bruins pulled their goalie but couldn't make anything happen. With 43 second left n the clock they called a time out. I turned to Ryan and said, "what is the point? they are not going to score twice in 43 seconds" I was wrong, they did. The arena was so loud it was hard to tell that 1/2 the fans had already left. Rawley and his little group of friends at the glass went nuts. They were so cute; all yelling and high fiving each other.

It was a great night and Rawley had so much fun. Thank you for the tickets!!!!!

On nights when Rawley is going to be out late we have tried giving him another 1/2 pill around 4:30-5pm. He usually has half at 7am, half around 11am or 12pm and then nothing for the rest of the day or he will not be able to sleep. Because his pills are a four hour release, by about 4pm he is not having such an easy time with control of his body. This is hard for us because we only see him during his worst time of the day. We first tried this 1/2 pill thing when we were in Seattle and having late nights with lots of outings. Then we tried it when he went to the Canuck's game last week with Uncle Dustin and we could not believe how good Rawley was. So, did it again last night and it is like being out with a totally different child. He is still spunky and fun loving, but controlled. We could see the difference in him. He was able to sit and watch the game without fiddling, getting up, kicking his legs, flailing his arms, spewing things out of his mouth before thinking. He was having a great time while not being overly obnoxious. Then we could actually see the transformation right at the four hour mark. He could not longer sit down, he was flailing his arms everywhere, raising his voice, speaking without thinking, not keeping his hands to himself, being the in your face type kid that has no control.

My one view of this is sad because it is so obviously clear how reliant he is on medication to be socially successful. On the other hand I am happy we have discovered this because it lets us know that we don't always have to cower at the thought of taking him out at night. We don't have to miss out on evening activities anymore, we just have to plan his medication around them. It usually means Rawley will not fall asleep any where close to 8pm, but by the time we get home he is tired and if he still struggles he can take a little bit of melatonin to assist his sleep.

Having a child with ADHD is a learning process everyday.