Journey to the Knot: February 2022

Dear Knox,

I’m writing this letter to you a few days late because we were on a cruise on your birthday. You have been very sad this morning as we got off the ship and said goodbye to an amazing week at sea. Right now, you’re sitting next to me playing Roblox on the iPad while in the airport awaiting our flight home. This past week, you spent quite a bit of time at Adventure Ocean, the kids club where you met lots of new people, played lots of games, did a lot of activities, and – your favorite – created lots of drawings! You ate pizza from Sorrento’s probably 2-3 times a day, loved being able to have chocolate chip cookies every night at the dining room, and couldn’t wait to get in the pools, especially the hot tub, every day. You said, “This is the life!” I don’t even know how many times this week!

At 6-years-old, you are getting more and more independent, and perhaps it’s because you’re my youngest, you are constantly surprising us with all you know and do. I forget you’re not a “baby” anymore, even if you are MY baby always. Let me tell you a little more about you at SIX!

-You LOVE to draw. You love to color. You’re always asking me to print coloring pages for you, and when I tell you we have plenty of coloring books, you are not satisfied with this answer. You want to color a specific character or scene. Mostly, you want me to print whatever new game or app you are into: Friday Night Funkin’, Roblox characters, Piggy, or some other crazy, creepy character from Five Nights at Freddy’s or Poppy’s Playhouse.

-You’re into “creepy,” or so you say. You watch strange things on YouTube that I’ve had to nearly prohibit because while you think it’s great during the day, at night you’re terrified to sleep by yourself.

-Speaking of, you love your new bunk bed we got after Hanukkah. You love to have your brothers sleep in your room with you, and you especially love to have them tell you silly stories after we say goodnight to you. While I wish you boys would just go to sleep, I do love hearing your giggles in your room.

-You make friends easily. Your favorite friends are Wyatt and Asher E. from Anshai, Jordan from Gan Izzy, and Omar and Luke from school.

-School has been good this year! Your Kindergarten teacher is Ms. Morris, and she tells us you’re doing very well academically. She says you need a lot of reminders and can easily lose track of your things, though. She says “Knox is Knox. He’s crazy, but I love him.” You have satisfactory progress on everything except keeping up with your belongings and maintaining self-control.

-We are not surprised about this last part. We had you evaluated by Dr. B over winter break, and he 100% agreed you have ADHD. The evaluation itself was kind of humorous, as Dr. B asked you questions and you couldn’t even pay attention to the question or remember what he had asked you. We have not started medication for this yet, as most prescriptions require you to be 6, and at the time, you were not there yet. But, now that you’ve had this birthday, we will probably get a prescription from Dr. B once we visit him for your well-check in a couple weeks.

-We welcomed Tova to our family in October, and you are so in love with her! While, at this time, she nips and gnaws at your feet and your pant legs or socks, you tolerate her very well, and when she cuddles you, it melts my heart. You have LOVED having a puppy.

-Some of your favorite things include: pretzels and chocolate chip muffins (yes, at the same time); apple juice; kolaches; Emma; Lizzie; pizza day at school; Roblox; coloring; sleeping in our bed; swimming; dancing; chicken nuggets; ketchup; McDonald’s, taking baths (and with bubbles and color if I allow it), the trampoline,

-You’re a very picky dresser. You might try on several outfits per day, and if the sleeves hit the wrong part of your body or your pants are too long or short, you will fuss that they don’t fit – when really they do. I can’t put your clothes away anymore; I’ve retired from that chore, because nothing stays where I put it, and you end up with a floor covered in clothing. It drives me insane.

-You are wild and crazy, and usually in your own little world while entertaining yourself. You are so very loud, and you are so silly! You’re active – loving to climb up on things, jump off of things, and make all kinds of noises and voices while doing it.

-It’s hard to believe that a year ago you were learning from home with Emma, George, and Graham at our house. The pandemic has set you back in a few ways, but I don’t even know if you remember a world before it. Your manners and social skills are lagging just a little, and you don’t enjoy learning as much as I would like. You only recently decided you could read, even though you’ve been able to do so for a year. Your confidence has been rocky when it came to reading until the last month or so. But, again, you’ve been able to do it for a long time. You write your teen numbers backwards (17 is written “71” for instance, even though we’ve been working on this for a while). You really just don’t seem to enjoy learning. When Ms. Swearingen tested you for PACE, she said you were quite resistant to testing, even saying, “I don’t want to do this!” Your scores indicated you are a superior reader and mathematician, but you decided you didn’t want to give it your all with any other tests – getting scores as low as in the 5^th percentile, which we KNOW is not accurate.

-You’ve lost 4 teeth – two front bottom and two front top. I’m savoring that gummy grin, even though one of the top teeth is starting to poke through. This is the stage I love the most – when the top two teeth are missing. When your fourth tooth came out just last week, Quinn looked at you and said, “Woah! He looks like a first grader!”

-You pick at your bottom lip - just like I do. We have an ongoing pact that when we see each other doing this icky habit, we will remind each other to stop.

-Speaking of Quinn, you and Quinn seem to be the best of buds most of the time. You both have active imaginations and play so well together. There are times when he gets a little gruff and bossy with you, but you hold your own! Banner, on the other hand, is usually not your best pal. You two clash quite often, and you both can be stubborn, impulsive, and crabby with each other.

-When you want, you can be the most loving, affectionate, helpful kiddo. When you want to put effort into cleaning up, there is no stopping you. You want to fold things up, find a space for everything, and make our home tidy. This is usually pretty rare, but when it happens, it’s delightful!

*Updated after your 6-year-old well check on March 4th with Dr. Berkowitz:

-Weight: 43.6 pounds = 45th percentile

-Height: 44 3/4 inches = 40th percentile

-BMI - 15.3 = 50th percentile

*We started Vyvanse to treat ADHD. You're currently taking 10 mg, a very small dose. We will see if we need to increase in the coming weeks.

*We had a birthday party for you at Altitude with a few friends on the first day of Spring Break. You wanted the theme to be Friday Night Funkin', something most people were unfamiliar with. You wanted microphone cupcakes, and they turned out pretty cute I think! :)

Oh Knox Morgan, I love you so very much. The past couple years have been rough with COVID and changing our normal routines, but we are slowly getting back to living life as we did before the pandemic. You tried soccer last semester, and I think because of ADHD, it was hard for you to really participate to your fullest potential. You have grown so accustomed to being home and just doing whatever you want on your own time, listening and following directions can be rough. You're quite impulsive, recently cussing and using inappropriate language, forgetting how we've discussed this kind of talk is unacceptable and not allowed. You are loud and silly. But, as we round out this trip we've been on and you've been holding my hand and wanting to cuddle, I know how much you love our family, even if you often feel frustrated by us. I'm hopeful that medication might help you feel more in control of your impulses and inattention so you can make choices that make you feel better about yourself. You are such a sweet, kind boy with a loving personality - you're just in to creepy stuff and bathroom talk! :)

I love you so much, Knoxy! I hope this birthday has been awesome for you! You are a spirited, wild little kid, and I can't wait to see you do great things - and maybe "calm down" just a little bit.

Happy Birthday, Baby Love!
Love,
Mom