Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Forging on

So the other night Charlie Brown and I are going through the kids' Monday folders.

These lovely creators of clutter do have information about school events from time to time, but mostly they include EVERY worksheet done in the past week. With one kid in kindy and another in 2nd grade, it gets to be a bit MUCH, but like any involved parent, we dutifully go through each and every paper.

I came to LMNOB's first reading log - they are to read nightly for 20 minutes and then summarize with a few sentences, have mom/dad sign off at the end of the week and turn in on Friday. Which she did. Sort of.

We reviewed....looking good - yeah, LMNOB DOES need to work on spacing....


Flip the page over and there's my note about how she doubled up on Monday, but didn't read on Wednesday due to church. Down below I see a curious thing....not my signature, but LMNOB's rendition of such.


Upon asking her about it, she said, "Weeeeeeeeeeelllll, YOU forgot to sign it and I HAD to turn it in with a signature!"

LOL....it starts so young...






© 2008 Ramblings of a Red-Headed Step-Child. All Rights Reserved

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Non-Ode to Teacher

O, how you frustrate the tar out of me, let me count the ways...

1. You pay lip service to the critical value of communication in your class newsletter and at parent's night, yet clearly, you do not send nor receive communication well at all.

Case[s] in point: 1.) at parent night, you whipped through everything all surface-like and vague, then when someone had to ask you about class discipline (since your demo didn't touch on it) you chalked it up to a red-yellow-green system, totally avoiding the "Think Box," lack of communication about which is what prompted that particular parent's question in the first place. Hee. Oh, and 2.) Monday I sent you [and Punkinhead's teacher] an e-mail specifically stating, "I also wanted you both to know that I am unable to begin volunteering in the above capacity (Thursdays) until Thursday 9/25 due to work obligations, but that I am eagerly looking forward to it." Yet this morning, you were shocked that I was not volunteering at 9:00 am. WTH? I mean, do you know how to read?

2. You act like implementing a 504 plan's accommodations are dependent upon you "remembering to do them," when really, you are bound to do so. In reality, you should have been compliant with the plan from the date of school starting, even without your signature, and continued to do so once the annual review attained your John Hancock - just sayin'. Oh, and another thing? How's about you write the accommodations in with your lesson plan? That way you remember them!


3. You appear to spend more thought in accessorizing your outfits than you do in educating my child. I have nothing against well-dressed attractive women, really, I don't, but I take issue in glossing over the educational needs of kiddos.


4. You seem to think that providing sensory input activities throughout your day is not your job. Newsflash! It is.


5. Resistance has no place in education, where open minds and learning new things should be of great value.


:Sigh:


Yes, it was 504 Plan review today and I had to correct the teacher, when she began to say that LMNOB would fill out the sensory activities checklist at the end of the day.


"No, that won't work. We've talked about this before, remember?"


I got a deer in the headlights look.


"Two weeks ago, I met with you and we talked about how it is unrealistic to ask any 7 y/o child to recall exact activities throughout the day, let alone one who may struggle with the confrontational nature of that sort of recall. She needs to do it as the activities are done or at a minimum before each recess, lunch, and end of day."


Thank goodness BT the OT and School OT were there and in my corner, too. Elsewise it would have been a long meeting of me single-handedly combatting this woman's denseness.


Later, as the teacher left to get her students, School OT put her face in her hands, looked up and said, "Thank you for being LMNOB's advocate. She just doesn't get it and I am trying, have tried, to educate - and I think having you and BT the OT reiterate what I've said will help."



I sure as heck hope so.



© 2008 Ramblings of a Red-Headed Step-Child. All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Complications....maybe

I'm in limbo folks.

Waiting on blood-work to come back so I know whether to save my concerns for something REAL or whether I need to become my own health advocate.

I'm not putting out the details - don't wish to concern folks I love who read here prematurely and/or wrongfully so.

Just pray for me, if you will, for peace of mind.

In the interim - the world is spinning too darned fast. I wish it would stop just long enough for me to catch my breath.



© 2008 Ramblings of a Red-Headed Step-Child. All Rights Reserved

Friday, September 12, 2008

Attention Colorado Readers of this Blog!

Looking for a fabulous date night in Loveland, CO next week?



Then I am your girl!



I am currently selling tickets for the Interfaith Hospitality Network's upcoming comedy night.

Details:

Photobucket



Tickets are:

$65/person

$120/couple



Tickets include: gourmet dinner and live entertainment! Also, 1/2 of the ticket price is tax deductible on your 2008 tax filings - so this is a bargain of a good time, and a great way to help an organization that helps families with children get out of homelessness and achieve self-sufficient lifestyles.



Want to buy a ticket?



Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?!?!



E-mail me.


© 2008 Ramblings of a Red-Headed Step-Child. All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

It Ain't Easy Being Queasy and Other Preggo Whines

This morning I woke up with hands that looked like the Stay Puft Marshmello Man's, and because they were so ginormously swollen, they ITCHED terribly. So badly, that both Charlie Brown and I laughed about just what activity may have caused this....ahem. My new James Avery ring, that I've been intermittently changing from wearing on my index finger to my middle finger, was barely budging off my middle finger. My hands were huge and painful.


Then the queasies....I've been actually sick about every other day for a week now - but the nausea is a daily occurrence that usually subsides about noon. This morning was a throw-up day (not by some psycho-somatic schedule, but by actually happening) and after the first heave, I saw some stars dancing around my head. Having experienced edema, changes in visual field and more woefully preeclamptic symptoms while pregnant with LMNOB (who was consequently induced lest I go into eclamptic seizures) I felt my red flags go up....briefly. Because, I would later remember, preeclampsia doesn't usually show up until 20wks or more in a pregnancy. And I'm only 7 wks. So I was left thinking: WTH?



Then, as I swapped roles with the toilet - from bowing down to sitting on it - I realized that my downstairs' flora has, erm, become a bit overgrown, if ya know what I mean. Just because there is a bun in the oven, in my opinion, that is no reason to have yeast overflowing. ANNNNNNNNND - the worst of all that is that I'm out of commission for a week b/c the doc says Monistat 7 is the only way to go whilst pg. No fair!



Hmmm....what else is there to whine about?



My hair - yes my hair. My normally very compliant with heat, gloriously bodied and voluminous hair has decided to rebel against me. Every morning is a battle, and given that my energy is in the tanks, the hair usually wins. And the shade appears to have changed - people keep asking me if I've lightened it and I'm all, "people, I haven't done a damned thing to it - it has a mind of its own lately."


At work the office across the hall from mine insists on burning the remaining coffee in the pot each day - which helps my queasies NONE.

I'm tired. I'm cranky. And while this baby is so something that I want and love - I just need a break. I need to take a full day off and just sleep. But for me to feel as if I could do that, I would probably need a maid to come in and overhaul my house first so that I could rest in peace without feeling as if I needed to "just do this one thing..." before going to bed.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!


© 2008 Ramblings of a Red-Headed Step-Child. All Rights Reserved

P.S. I called my doc about the preeclampsia worries, and she seemed to think it was all dehydration-related. She told me to check my BP at the pharmacy where I was getting my Monistat from and if it was normal, to just hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. BP was normal at 121/75 so I'm drinking ginger ale and gatorade as much as I can stomach it.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Almost, Buddy, Almost

Last night, I was putting Punkinhead into bed and he went to kiss the baby belly.

"Mama, it's WEIRD that the baby is only as big as a hamburger seed!" he announced with big eyes.

I laughed, at his mis-translation of the information we shared with him from Babycenter last week.

"You mean a SESAME seed?" I asked him.

He giggled sheepishly and said, "Yeah, that's what I meant."

I answered, "Yeah, it is hard to think about that huh?"

Nods.

"But know what? It's already bigger than that now - now it's the size of a bean, and by Monday it'll be the size of a berry! It's growing very quickly right now....right now, it's growing hands and feet, but they look more like those," I said, pointing to the feet on his Ducky, "than they look like our hands and feet. Then the fingers will grow and separate, and the toes too, and it's hands/feet will look just like ours, only much much smaller."

He looked up at me in awe and said what we've all been thinking: "Wow, Mama - that is soooooooooo cool!"

I know, Buddy - isn't God's work stunning?



© 2008 Ramblings of a Red-Headed Step-Child. All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

So, Was This a "Surprise," Then?

Such has been the reaction people have had when we’ve shared the news about this pregnancy thus far. From family to co-workers to friends, this assumption has remained constant.


It’s not so offensive, given that for the past several years I have resolutely said, “Absolutely not; no more children for us!” But, what people seem to have a hard time wrapping their brains around is that people change; moreover, God can change hearts, relationships and circumstances in miraculous combinations.


People, unaware of this pregnancy, have stopped me at church, my coffee haunts, etc., and have said that I was “glowing” with an air of happiness recently.


And, I am happy. My husband loves me and is treating me with such tenderness and honor that I can’t help but notice and subsequently feel amazingly blessed. Our daughter is adjusting to a new school year much more smoothly than last year, and our son is loving that he’s a “big kid” at school too. Our home life has changed and the quality of our time together has increased.


Then, when I share with them that we are expecting, people do the math of the split this baby will have with his/her siblings (8 yrs and 5 ½ yrs), and say it: “So, this was a ‘surprise,’ then – how are you feeling about that?”


My response is usually a fragmented, “I couldn’t be happier….totally planned….we’re very excited…” because what else is there to say?


So many of the young women at our church are having babies – mostly their first babies, too – and they are all where I was 7 years ago; exhausted, frustrated, disillusioned with motherhood, and frantically trying to get to know these babies that grew inside them for 9 months, but whom they really know nothing about. I understand it because I’ve lived it.


But this time feels different. It WAS different with Punkinhead – I was much more zen with him, despite having a 2 ½ y/o who didn’t quite get why she had to have this new baby in her life. Now, both kids are older and very excited about being Mama’s helpers. I’m more patient with them too, and the prospect of this newest babe is a thrill to my soul. Now, I’m older and more at ease with myself and life in general.


Experience is nothing to be mocked – it is of tremendous value and I know that I’ll be relying on it a lot this go-round.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Reading Between the Lines

Soooo....

School OT called me first thing this morning (:enter sheepish me: I'd forgotten that she services several schools in the district and that today would be her first day at our school - good news? She called me FIRST THING on her FIRST DAY at the school!) wanting to know how LMNOB was doing thus far.

I told her that so far everything seemed to be going great in LMNOB's eyes; but that in my eyes, the communication was a little lacking from the teacher


"Uhm, yeah," School OT began hesitantly, "all teachers have their own understandings, experience and personalities. We definitely have a different personality this year than we did in Ms. M last year."


School OT then mentioned that Ms. R wanted LMNOB to complete the daily checklist of sensory activities done at school rather than Ms. R having to do it, and that she wanted me to be aware of that prior to the 504 review hearing on the 18th so it didn't surprise me. What did I think about that, she wondered?


My turn to create some lines between which the real message lay.


I said, "Well, I understand that teachers have a lot pulling at them, and that some of these extra accommodations might be strange or burdensome from time to time, and I want to be fair about that. I also think that because LMNOB is so high functioning that this could work, if done appropriately. For instance, if the checklist was on her desk daily and she could check things off as they were done, that would be fine. However, if she's expecting LMNOB to summarize at the end of the day - that will never work."


Between that scphiel was the gist of where I come from:


I am willing to compromise....TO AN EXTENT - this is my kid, not a frickin' floral arrangement at a party, and I don't care how much of an inconvenience this teacher may feel a sensory diet is - a 504 is a legal document and if she doesn't want to cooperate, well, we have recourses that we are able to take.


School OT was quick on the uptake and parroted back my unspoken words, almost exactly as I just wrote them above.


This made me feel great, because it is not me and BT the OT against the school - it's us trying to educate a teacher, and there is power in numbers.


We talked some more about LMNOB's increase in self-regulating with sensory stuff and a decreased need for outsiders to help initiate sensory diet activities for her (great!), as well as her continued struggle with confrontational speech/social issues (not so great), and when all was said and done, it appears that we have a lot to cover in very little time on the 18th.


I just pray that Ms. R is not so obtuse in my presence.


It might just drive me to the brink of tears in my hormonal state right now; I have been successful thus far in avoiding the hysterical parent role and I would REALLY like to keep it that way. (NO offense to any of my special needs mommy readers who have broken down with school folks - I completely understand, but totally hate that it has to be this way with some teachers/administrators!)





© 2008 Ramblings of a Red-Headed Step-Child. All Rights Reserved