Greetings Pixie friends!
Wow, that week of study and contentment passed by very quickly. But here we are at another week.
Today I'm heading out in the cold to stand at the cenotaph and remember the men, women, and animals who fought in the wars. It's always humbling.
What's happening in your neck of the woods?
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AW: finally figured out that maybe it was Sweet's nebulizer steroid that was making her Grumpy Pants. So we stopped it.
W: cough got worse, within 24 hours. Crap.
That sucks, Esperanza.
Indeed. Thanks. We are going to Big City this afternoon for an appointment with the developmental doctor. I do believe we'll be headed back to the regular pedi tomorrow afternoon. (She is way more worried about getting out of school early than she is about going to a new-ish doctor...we saw this guy when she was wee, then insurance blah blah and now we're switching back).
Oh, yuck, Esperanza. Remember the steroid grumps. And yet, wonder med for ze lungs.
Good about getting back to the developmental doc you liked!
Working breakfast; went well; everybody on same page. Have plan; sallying forth.
Tomorrow, more breakfast with another colleague! We'll be making the third stop on our tour of local breakfast attractions.
Sunday, yet another memorial for a colleague. And also my husband's birthday -- and I have put together NO celebration yet. NO present ideas. Ack.
Well, the internet saved my hide again on the present front.
So, here's my problem on the celebration front. My sweetie wants a BBQ (with him as the lead griller) on his b-d. And this freaks me out, because I'll be gone that afternoon; so I was thinking restaurant. But maybe it would be OK if I get all the stuff and prepare side-dishes beforehand?
Fire placing mental health issues. AW: not mine.
((( Miranda ))) xoxo
(((Miranda)))
Kathy, definitely it's fine if you get all the stuff and BUY the side dishes beforehand. He wants to be master griller? Terrific! That doesn't imply you being master chef of everything else.
((Miranda)) so hard.
AW: I heart this doctor. You know how sometimes really smart people make you feel stupid? And other times really smart people make your own brain work faster and make you feel smarter too? He's the latter. And everything he said about Sweet made sense. Possible learning disability. Definitely tired out from kindergarten.
W: possible learning disability.
Oh, yay for the docs who make one feel smarter! Possible learning disability is -- possible. And that opens doors for extra help for her. xoxo
It only took a small argument, but we are going to a nice Indian restaurant. Which he actually loves. With the children, and possible cousins.
And I should have included AW: nonverbal IQ score = 96 = absolutely, perfectly, normal, even for her actual age (7), not comparing to her grade level (K).
Great score! The verbal things just take longer and more work for some kids, but Sweet has a lot goin' on that is perfectly fine in every way. :)
Yay for Indian food!!
I'm glad the appt went so well esperanza. The best pediatricians are the ones who recognize the wisdom of parents. Yay Sweet on her score!!
W: The Fireplacing Insomnia. Ugh. It's going to be a LONG day.
(((Miranda)))
Esperanza, many hugs. That's a great doctor, and even if there's a learning disability, it sounds like she's doing really well, and a diagnosis would just mean her teachers will adapt a bit for her, and give her tools to adapt for herself.
AW: We're back from a trip to Mr. Q's family's farm! We had a good time, but there's no place like home (click click click).
W: while E enjoyed herself, she rewarded us for travelling with sleep deprivation. Two days in a row of walking up before 5am, and not going back to sleep! She wouldn't sleep in the car, even though it was naptime!
And people wonder why I'm so hesitant to travel with her. Yes, OTHER toddlers travel all the time. E is not other toddlers.
AW: she slept in this morning! There's no place like home.
The mythical "sleeping in"! It lives in the land of unicorns around here.
Our kids sleep HORRIBLY anywhere but home. The more people there are to disturb, the worse they sleep. I think (she whispers) they may be getting a bit better as they get older, so there's hope for E yet, QWP. Teensy tiny doses of melatonin have helped the getting-to-sleep part. You might ask the pedi next time you are there.
I am thrilled about a new dress I got from eshakti. I ordered three, and one of them is PERFECT for me! It fits! It really fits!
I'm sending back the other two, and just ordered three more identical to the perfect one, except in different colors and sleeve lengths (and one with a slightly different neckline, just to test it out)
Liz: that's fantastic, and such a good idea to order more like the perfect dress.
Esperanza: our challenge around here is less getting her to fall asleep, and more getting her to stay asleep, once it's technically morning, and I can't figure out anything that helps with that (other than being at home, usually).
W: it is ridiculously cold outside! With the windchill, it's - 8F right now. And I have a toddler who is BEGGING me to take her to the park, but it's hard to get her to wear her warm mitts, and the only boots she currently has are booties with leather soles, and they do not protect against the cold. And toddler winter boots are shockingly expensive! Even at crummy big box stores! How does anyone with a lower income manage (especially since the thrift stores are super picked over for winter clothes).
If I was having another kid after E, I could trick myself into thinking that $50 for winter boots would be a good investment, but at this point, I'm thinking that it would be $10/month.
$10/month for free outdoor activities.
Are there any kids' clothing consignment stores? Or winter gear exchanges, e.g., at a church or school?
AW: another breakfast!
AW: Minnie has started jumping up to sleep on me at night.
kathy a, your last AW would be a W for me. Can't stand anyone or anything touching me while I'm sleeping!
Liz, hooray for well fitting dresses! I have heard good things about eshakti but have never tried it myself.
QWP, it is "freezing cold" here too. 40F this morning! Hey, our blood is thin. I can't imagine how you manage.
Minnie is tiny, weighs almost nothing. And I do get too hot, but she doesn't seem to mind being shifted so she is near me. Also, she doesn't sit on my belly or face, or pummel me with kneading. An altogether satisfactory sleep-cat.
Also, not bad for a rescued street thug.
Oh crappity crap crap. The wife of a good friend has been struggling with terminal cancer, but she was still holding on, doing OK. Until yesterday; she didn't eat or drink, had to go to the hospital via EMT, and has not become lucid. Her son got back from his college at 2 a.m. She is now on comfort care only. She is my age. This is so devastating for her family.
I know her also, but not as well -- we had a wonderful dinner when daughter was in DC about 3 years ago. Made her a happy quilt when she first became ill. They live across the country, so I can't think of what to do from here besides sending lots of love.
fireplacing cancer. I'm sorry.
(((kathy a))) Fireplacing cancer.
AW: Grandma to the rescue! She was unsuccessful at finding any secondhand boots, and then found great ones for $20 at the grocery store.
QWP, yay for grandma!!
Kathy, call on me to be your boots on the ground for your friends if you'd like.
Go, grandma!
Thanks, Liz.
(((((Kathy)))))
Yay for grandma! $20 is a good price!
That's great news about the perfect dress Liz. I do the same thing - when something works, buy a few.
W: My lovely daughter decides to wait until the last moment to do her homework. Again.
AW: We had a rip-roaring good time doing it together, as a family. She has to write cinquains, which are a kind of poem. http://olkingcolescastle.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/cinquain.jpg
I wrote one, and I realized that even though I've been absent from the WW for so long, you all are the only people who will appreciate my contribution to the Arts. It's about my dumba$$ cat, whom I love.
Mittens
Stripy, fluffy
Shedding, meowing, barfing
Carpet covered in spew
Precious
Big votes down to cancer and mental health issues.
Big votes up to dresses and boots that fit, good news of all varieties, and small kitties who are good sleeping buddies. <3
Hi, Amy!
Howdy!
Mittens is in my lap now. I love him, but geez, he is stinky.
Hope all the pixies are well!
Amy! Great to have you back! Sorry about the procrastinating offspring.
Hi Amy!
Great cinquain about your kitteh!
Amy for style!!!!!
Amy for style!!!!!
Definitely for style!
Oh hey, the former facility for SIL hired someone to do a customer satisfaction survey. Ha. I suggested my husband may not wish to talk with her, and she did not call back after the time I gave for his return.
What can they be thinking, after threatening us and lying to us and sending us into a frenzy?
My perfect dress? Makes me look like a tomato in pictures. In my opinion.
A tomato? Well. Hmph. Guess it is best to find out before ordering 3 more, but how very disappointing.
I'm in despair about clothing options lately. The one dress my husband likes is 8 years old, and absolutely nothing similar can be found today.
Too late, I already ordered more. But in different colors. But I am going to embrace my tomato-ness.
Fireplacing cancer. M died this morning. Peacefully, friends and family by her side. But fireplace it all.
((((kathy a.)))))
--Neighbor Lady
Thanks, NL. And everybody.
Aw, crap, kathy a. Sorry.
Pediatrician assures me it isn't the steroid making her grumpy. (If it were oral, maybe so). Keep giving her medicine indefinitely, because her airway is "reactive"/irritated and needs to heal. Ugh. Not what I wanted to hear. Also investigate what might be setting off allergic response. Which is a needle in a haystack, of course. (Also, given the timing, I'm suspicious it's something at kindergarten, about which I can do nothing).
W/Rant: Sweet gets out of school at noon tomorrow, because the high school football playoff game is in a far-away town. Because the team needs the buses, and they want people to be able to get to the game. I am highly annoyed about this. It's the 3rd time it's happened this year. I'm even more annoyed that they didn't notify us until Wednesday. I feel a letter to the school board coming on. I'm getting cranky in my old age.
Ooh!!! Cranky letters! Those are my favorite!
(((Kathy)))
While Sweet was awake coughing last night, I was composing the cranky letter in my head. So I guess I'll send it. It is also annoying that we got a 10 minute lecture at the beginning of school about the importance of attendance, and how if they miss school time they "aren't learning" (bunch of baloney, that). Yet, you're canceling school for a football game?
You tell 'em, Esperanza!
Decided to send a little care package of non-perishable gourmet treats to my friend and his family. JoAnn has pretty storage-type boxes, don't they? Right near there is an old world deli, TJ's, and a pet supply (so the very sad dog can get a treat, too), and on the way home are the Japanese markets.
((((kathy)))) The care package sounds perfect.
LOVE the dress Liz! Love it.
Write that cranky letter esperanza! Also, posse on the way for putting football ahead of little one's routines.
Cancelling school totally sends the wrong message. There are so many other options -- rent extra buses for the team; see about working out a share arrangement with a nearby district; set up a car pool "bridge" to get kids home if they insist on stealing the buses for sports.
And excuse me, 2 days notice? For a SPORTS event scheduled months in advance? What are the littler kids, chopped liver?
Didn't the sports boosters used to have bake sales and car washes and pester family and friends to contribute to fundraisers, so they could rent the buses?
Civics rant: This is an example of why local, low-level elected offices like school board matter.
The big deal in our local school board election was that a huge amount of money (from for profit "charter" school companies) poured into the race. And these charter schools both drain the district of money, and do their best to siphon off the well-achieving kids with involved parents.
(((kathy))) I'm so sorry. The care package idea is a good one.
Esperanza: cranky letters are very much in order! I was telling Mr. Q about the cancelled school there, and he was horrified. "How is that legal?" (The laws here are VERY protective of instructional time. And the school board here just made changes to the sports seasons, to keep them from being distractions from instruction.)
W: car won't start, it's terribly cold outside, and all of my warm winter coats are missing. And I have no time to deal with all that nonsense, because E is a mess. It might be molars, or she might be sick. She didn't stop crying until after painkillers got into her system and she had frozen stuff to chew.
AW: we just shared a mango-avacado smoothie, and I'm distracting her with TV.
It is a playoff football game, so it wasn't scheduled till probably Monday. Still. I grew up here. I get that football is big. I NEVER NEVER NEVER got out of school early, even in high school, and our team was in plenty of playoff games. Elementary students certainly didn't get out early.
QWP: Reason #5837 you're glad you live in Canada (I mean the protecting instructional time, not the insane cold)
A team making it to playoffs is -- well, haven't they heard of contingency planning? Isn't there some kind of financial reserve for the hiring of extra buses, if a team seems potentially headed toward Sports Glory? I mean, this isn't a development totally out of the blue.
QWP, best on the molaring. And hope you find your winter coats, or at least one of them. Also, uck about the car.
Yeah, I'm confused about the contingency planning as well. When we had special things, we rented chartered buses (they were actually city buses that weren't needed at that time of day, or something). There has to be something that can do, without harming everyone else's instructional time!
W: to add to the ridiculousness of the day, the already-sore toddler accidentally fell off the Big Potty. She seems to be feeling no ill effects from the bump to the head (knocking wood), but for a while, she refused to walk because her foot hurt.
AW: TV seems to have helped her forget. I suspect that she's still freaked out from the big fall she took, a couple of weeks ago, and so she assumes that every time she falls that she won't be able to put weight on her foot.
You don't want to be all-TV all-the-time, but certain videos saved my hide at certain points in my kids' development, particularly when there was no other adult in sight.
Poor ouchy toddler. And poor toddler's mama.
You know, what the football team does is not really my problem. Someone else can figure that out. Just let my kid be in school.
Cranky letter is written. If only we had a stamp. Mr E is bringing one home.
My rules: extra stamps,
extra toothbrushes, extra
underwear and sox.
and toilet paper
Yeah. But that wouldn't fit in the haiku. ;)
Unless there's another verse:
And toilet paper.
And cash, but not too much. And
Love love crazy love.
oh! I missed the now-obvious haiku!
My daughter's work is shipping all these fragile vases, and they ran out of packing material, and apparently nobody has heard of the temple of office supplies. So I sent my excess to work with her today, and then they got a shipment of some inferior packing product, and they still ran out. Which I know, is really stupid.
But I'm going to the office supply temple to buy a bunch of bubble wrap, and she can get reimbursed, and everybody's asses will be saved, no? Can't focus so much on my own work right now, so trying to do good karma.
W: both Baboos with coughs. It is "cold" outside (by our standards, and for our available equipment). So no playing outside today, despite our looooong afternoon. Without outside play, Mini has not burned enough energy to be tired by bedtime. Sigh.
AW: no outside play did lead to a brief stint by Mini on our elliptical machine, in the nude, as she waited for her turn in the shower. What can you do but laugh?
Oh! I'm laughing, too.
This is a great week for style kathy - great haikus.
(((QWP))) 'Tis the season for cars that won't start. I hope it's running now. And I hope you find the winter gear. brrrr... We're pretty cold here today too. Not as cold as you, but the mitts and hats are at the ready.
AW: Nice dinner with friends last night. Delightful company, good food.
W: ... but oh so late. It was out in the country so we took one vehicle, so I couldn't politely excuse myself at 10:00 or so. I'm not accustomed to getting home close to midnight.
Today's a very full day. Lunch and craft show with my sisters (yay!) then a visit for work, then a sermon for tomorrow.
Awards will not likely happen today, so keep whining pixies!
Sounds like a wonderful dinner, Sue -- but with you on late evenings doing me in nowadays!
Esperanza -- actually, the albuterol made my kid hyper and, as a consequence, a cranky-pants. Best with the search for the allergens (also recalled as a giant pain in the patootie). Spring and fall were worse times; is there something online where you can check local levels of pollens and/or air quality? Also, smoke seemed to aggravate him. And we started religiously using unscented products, which seemed to help. xoxo
Sweet is the only person on the planet unaffected by albuterol. During the most cranky pants timeframe, we were using a similar, more $$ drug called xopenex, which doesn't have the hyper effects, anyway. She's exhausted, from not sleeping well, and from kindergarten. As far as the allergen search, I'm pretty convinced that it's something at school, given the timing of symptom onset. We'll work on filters and things at home, but I'm not going to lose a lot of sleep over that. Drier air in the house with the heater going has seemed to worsen the cough.
Oh yeah, a humidifier helps! (But you know that.) Poor Sweet. And you. Agree with not going nuts trying to figure out the unfigurable; just hope it gets back to a gentler place soon.
I'm in a place of stress overload, and jeepers. My beloved is bringing even more of his sister's stuff to our house, because he doesn't want to pay the storage any more. Behind, so behind on work. People keep fireplacing dying. Tomorrow is a double-header -- husband's birthday, plus big memorial for my old boss. And yadda. At least the cats continue to entertain.
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