I had vowed that this was the year of no home improvements since we added the mudroom and garage last year. Just a nice relaxing summer to survey my property and plant a garden. I get home yesterday and DH had ripped out all of the front landscaping. Spent the entire afternoon planting and mulching which will continue today. This better be it. Plus, my much anticipated garden (which will probably feed the deer and squirrels more than us) is yet to be tilled.
Last volleyball tournament of the year Saturday. I can't believe I made through this season coaching. We are undefeated so far. They have far surpassed my skill level, so I am so glad I was able to get some help and piece together what seems to be a successful program.
I actually have a fair number of updates. Our rental house that we are selling is nearly ready. Open house is scheduled for the weekend after next. I’m so ready. This house has taken every spare moment I’ve had since February.
My brother got a job! It’s his first job that pays what I would consider to be a living wage. I’m so excited for him.
H continues not to schedule his vasectomy but says he will be doing so once his current spate of business trips wraps up. I’m still sad, but I’m trying to keep my eyes on the prize. I’ll be planning a lot of vacations as a consolation.
Post by covergirl82 on Apr 26, 2018 11:52:16 GMT -5
I just got back from visiting my aunt who has cancer. She had a treatment about 5 blocks from my office, so I walked over and spent some time with her, another aunt who brought her to the treatment, and my parents. It sounds like she might be doing better than my dad made it sound last time (but that might be because they didn't have new scans yet). I guess her CT scan on Monday showed that some of the cancer has slowed in growth, and cancer in another area has stopped growing. She seemed in good spirits, and she has a positive attitude about treatment and recovery, so that is good.
DS has 1 more OT session left. He is doing well except the last eye exercise which is convergence. His eyes don’t seem to move. Not sure what to do about that except keep practicing and see the optician. I need to make 3 doctor appointments for kids for May.
Also I am not sure when to quit his PT exercises. I was told to quit everything for the summer but I have 1 more month. Definitely doing eye exercises for at least two more weeks not sure if I should keep working on arms since baseball is starting or quit that. She never did work on his walking. Foot doctor said he would just grow out of it so not sure if I should work on that or just say I’ve done this for 9 months - F it- I’m taking a long break.
I might do Hotwire but just in case I need a Portland hotel rec and another cheaper Seattle one (just for the night before we fly out).
After about 6 years of talking about it I might finally ask my boss to leave early two days a week so I can pay half price for aftercare. Still trying to pick the right time to ask him and summer is our busy time buts a difference of 70-80 a week and I’d rather spend the time with them then work, obviously. I can work from home or use PTO and he has been pushing us to use PTO up so I think he would be fine either way. I just needed all the doctor appointments to end first. It’s no more time then I was spending a week at the OT and PT and using sick time all year. And that went fine.
DH was in a good mood after therapy Tuesday. He went off paintballing an hour away after yesterday and didn't get home until 9 so is back to tons of me time. Don't know how I feel about that. Him not being home for his me time was okay with me. I get more frustrated when he is home and needing his hours of me time and I'm left doing everything while he is having fun. Will have to see what happens the next couple weeks.
I have a private lesson scheduled for DD at gymnastics on 5/4. This coach doesn't teach classes often but DD had her in mommy and me and loves her like crazy. She subbed for our normal coach last night and it was really amazing how much more DD did with just her asking. She didn't fall for DD's "no I need help" and just was like nope you can do this lets go. It was awesome.
Work has really slowed down. It is nice to be able to sit and work on stuff with out having 50 million interruptions.
Just got back from visiting the awesome private school for DDs. They both LOVED it. They had screens and assessment tests... and DD1 bombed. I was shocked. She's never had any sort of trouble academically. They showed me her math assessment - she maybe got 1/2 of them right. She hadn't been exposed to the rest. She is so very far behind because of this stupid school. I offered to get her a summer tutor but I think it's a dealbreaker. I'm so sad. She said the kids were so nice, and that she knows she would be so happy there. She does not have a learning issue. She just hadn't seen the stuff and didn't know what to do.
I'm trying to decide if I should stalk them now or wait until tonight to send a thoughtful thanking them for their time and reiterating that DD1 can catch up.
mae0111, I know zero about applying to private school. But if it is anything like interviewing for a job, I would send a thoughtful email thanking them and reiterating that DD1 can catch up in math.
mae0111 - can you prepare a counter proposal to a rejection? I’d say you plan to compete XYZ summer programs and will pay for outside retesting - if she scores at X level she would be admitted for Fall? I promise they have a couple seats saved to the side for $$ people, siblings/family referrals and intra-year transfers. Fingers crossed you don’t even have to go through that.
My update is I went to SS’ ceremony at rehab, and to lunch, he’s with in laws at his first outpatient appointment now. He moves into the sober living house tonight. I’m super nervous for him. Like, super super nervous and I just want to ... help him adult.
I’m taking DD to scout teams this weekend to see if any independent clubs might be a good fit (based on if they need a utility player, the coaches, team behavior, sideline behavior). If they are I am going to have to approach the coach, introduce DD and ask if she can guest practice/what their roster size is current/projected, and if they are planning on tryouts/position tryouts/closed tryouts. I feel like am going to throw up thinking about it. Her team went 118W - 10L - 10T while they played together so she should be able to move but this is the most nervous I have ever felt EVER for one of my kids.
So I ended up sending an email. I thanked the principal and admissions director for their time, and told them how happy my kids were to spend some time with other students. I said they were both so excited about the possibility of joining the community in the fall.
I then went into the math issue - that I believed it to be an issue of exposure, rather than a learning issue. That the concepts were foreign, but that she’s never had an issue with the concepts at her school. I reiterated that we would be more than willing to get her a summer tutor (in fact, asked if any of their teachers did summer tutoring) and we would do whatever was needed to catch her up. I offered a retest today, but they declined.
I really hope it works out. They really want DD2 as their applications for K are down, so I am hoping she is enough of a hook to get her in.
Just got back from visiting the awesome private school for DDs. They both LOVED it. They had screens and assessment tests... and DD1 bombed. I was shocked. She's never had any sort of trouble academically. They showed me her math assessment - she maybe got 1/2 of them right. She hadn't been exposed to the rest. She is so very far behind because of this stupid school. I offered to get her a summer tutor but I think it's a dealbreaker. I'm so sad. She said the kids were so nice, and that she knows she would be so happy there. She does not have a learning issue. She just hadn't seen the stuff and didn't know what to do.
I'm trying to decide if I should stalk them now or wait until tonight to send a thoughtful thanking them for their time and reiterating that DD1 can catch up.
I’d talk to them and explain. They may be willing to work with her and make want to help her get out of a bad situation as well. Private schools seem to have more goodwill.
Post by sandandsea on Apr 26, 2018 16:35:33 GMT -5
At ds2s 18 month appt in January we were given a referral to an ENT as he has had fluid in his ears at every appointment. The referral had mixed reviews so we decided to go with another place and the earliest appointment is at the end of August. I am conflicted because he’s really starting to talk more and if it is impacting his hearing, will age 22-26 months be some kind of key development period? We have no indication that it is bothering his hearing as he sings and talks now, just not clearly or as much as other kids in his class. But the what ifs bother me. I’m sure I’m overthinking this.
Well I'm getting my wish to work on more drug issues. What is my life that I am researching the price of heroin cookers. Apparently you can't buy everything on Amazon.
rere how does one do that research? I would love for my DH to redo our front yard! Instead I just hired a guy and have to pay a lot of money for him to do it - but I guess theresthe advantage of getting to tell him exactly what I want.
librarychica My baby is only 10 months and I’m already sad that I likely won’t get to do all this stuff again - I haven’t quite accepted it yet. I’m still hoping DH will change his mind even though I know it’s unlikely.
My DD has a super disgusting ailment that is not a huge deal besides being super gross. I don’t want to even mention it in case some of you haven’t dealt with it yet and would end up with nightmares about it
At ds2s 18 month appt in January we were given a referral to an ENT as he has had fluid in his ears at every appointment. The referral had mixed reviews so we decided to go with another place and the earliest appointment is at the end of August. I am conflicted because he’s really starting to talk more and if it is impacting his hearing, will age 22-26 months be some kind of key development period? We have no indication that it is bothering his hearing as he sings and talks now, just not clearly or as much as other kids in his class. But the what ifs bother me. I’m sure I’m overthinking this.
If you are worried about hearing loss you will need to see an audiologist for testing. An ENT just looks at the health of the ears and advises on tubes. If the medical system will allow you there is no reason you can’t do audiology first and then see the ENT. Unless audiology wants you referred by ENT but you could probably be referred by your pedi. Don’t let them send you bank and forth because audiology would say come back when there isn’t any fluid but DS always had fluid. And the ENT wouldn’t do tubes for just fluid they also needed a history of a lot of ear infections or hearing loss. Of course our ENT is very passive which is one of the reasons I switched.
DS bounced back quickly speech wise from his hearing loss but really we should have been quicker on our timeline but we thought tubes would fix it the second time.
At ds2s 18 month appt in January we were given a referral to an ENT as he has had fluid in his ears at every appointment. The referral had mixed reviews so we decided to go with another place and the earliest appointment is at the end of August. I am conflicted because he’s really starting to talk more and if it is impacting his hearing, will age 22-26 months be some kind of key development period? We have no indication that it is bothering his hearing as he sings and talks now, just not clearly or as much as other kids in his class. But the what ifs bother me. I’m sure I’m overthinking this.
We’re seeing an ENT tomorrow for the same thing. Well; for not perfectly passing his hearing tests (3) and fluid.
At ds2s 18 month appt in January we were given a referral to an ENT as he has had fluid in his ears at every appointment. The referral had mixed reviews so we decided to go with another place and the earliest appointment is at the end of August. I am conflicted because he’s really starting to talk more and if it is impacting his hearing, will age 22-26 months be some kind of key development period? We have no indication that it is bothering his hearing as he sings and talks now, just not clearly or as much as other kids in his class. But the what ifs bother me. I’m sure I’m overthinking this.
If you are worried about hearing loss you will need to see an audiologist for testing. An ENT just looks at the health of the ears and advises on tubes. If the medical system will allow you there is no reason you can’t do audiology first and then see the ENT. Unless audiology wants you referred by ENT but you could probably be referred by your pedi. Don’t let them send you bank and forth because audiology would say come back when there isn’t any fluid but DS always had fluid. And the ENT wouldn’t do tubes for just fluid they also needed a history of a lot of ear infections or hearing loss. Of course our ENT is very passive which is one of the reasons I switched.
DS bounced back quickly speech wise from his hearing loss but really we should have been quicker on our timeline but we thought tubes would fix it the second time.
Thanks! Yes they scheduled both for the same day at the same place. I know he “can” hear us at least most of the time. But he always has fluid and almost always has a runny nose too which I blame on daycare germs.
We’re moved in! The movers were completely unprepared for how unprepared we were, but the big stuff is taken care of and now we have 178 boxes left to take care of... yay?
Tomorrow we have DS’s ENT and then registering DD for kinder. KINDER! How?!?
Post by greenmonkey1 on Apr 27, 2018 5:10:11 GMT -5
sandandsea DS2 went through the ENT/audiology process for persistent fluid with no ear infections at 3 years old. The ENT talked about tubes, but we tried a regime of Flonase first. Flonase worked for DS2 and we were able to avoid tubes. Apparently Flonase is not generally successful, but is in a small margin of cases. May be worth asking the ENT because it sure is a lot cheaper than tubes.
Post by librarychica on Apr 27, 2018 7:45:04 GMT -5
sdlaura, thanks and hugs. H would give the green light for another baby but it isn’t what he wants and I suspect no matter how many kids I have there would always be part of me going “baby baby baby.” It’s just how I’m wired. Sorry that you’re feeling these feelings too.
Also I hope the gross ailment passes. I’m imagining every one I know trying to guess now, lol
k3am , Oh wow I think when I first joined the board she was only two and you guys were dealing with the seizures. I can't believe she is in Kindergarten now.
My Life:
1. Does anyone remember my crazy SMIL that I don't talk to anymore? Little background; She had done a lot of little passive aggressive things to my H and myself over the years that were annoying and then built up to one major event that I threw in the towel and said I was done.
Well my DH wants to bury the hatchet with her. His step father passed away about a month ago and he really wants a relationship with his father, but it is really hard to have that relationship when he is married to someone you refuse to talk to. I told him he is welcome to have a relationship with anyone he wants, but I don't have to. I think it is easier for him to forgive since he was the one hurt than it is for me, because she hurt someone I love. So he said that he isn't ready right now, but wants to reach for that goal. When the time comes he wants to sit down with her and lay everything out on the table and what she needs to do to make it right with me. Only problem; I don't know that that is yet.
2. Dh got a contingent job offer that should be rolling into a real job offer hopefully Monday. We are so excited! major pay raise and gets away from his current boss who is just awful.
3. We had a growth ultrasound Wednesday and baby girl is in the 60 percentile in size. She measuring about a week and half ahead. DS was 9lbs 7 oz at 39 weeks; they are estimating she will be about 8.5 lbs. Very active little girl and not at all happy about being spied on. Our nursery is complete and now all we need to do is install the car seat.
Question: Is the infant carrier worth it? With DS we thought so, but it was also winter and we wanted to keep him bundled when we were moving from outside to inside. Not so sure if it is worth it for the summer baby.
ETA: I meant is the infant bucket carseat worth it? I want to just use a rear facing seat that converts to front facing; DH really likes the bucket car seat.
k3am, sandandsea, Both of my kids have tubes for persistent ear infections and fluid. DS actually failed the 4k hearing test because he had so much fluid. They've had tubes for about a year now, and no more ear infections that require us to go to urgent care. If they start having goop draining out of an ear, we just use the antibiotic drops that we have on hand. I think with our insurance it came out to about $250 per kid for us, but our HMO is pretty good.
xctsclrx, I had a March baby and used both a Baby Bjorn and an Ergo ALL THE TIME. First of all, I hated the bucket. HATED IT. So I never carried the kids in it unless it was cold or rainy and I needed to buckle them up inside and run out to the car. When I was dropping DD1 off at preschool, I used to see the other moms bring the buckets in and put them on the floor, prompting all the snotty, sneezy 3 year olds to run over and touch the baby. Nope. They couldn't get near her in the Baby Bjorn. Just being at the playground on maternity leave and weekends, the carrier made it easier for me to move around. And DD2 had some food allergy issues so she was super fussy for the first 2 months. Keeping her in the front carrier in the Ergo baby cocoon thing kept her comforted, and kept my arms free.
I would recommend a cheap baby bjorn for quick trips, but as she got bigger, it killed my neck and back. The Ergo was much more involved and took more practice to get her in alone. I also didn't like that there was no option for her to face out. Maybe that's changed? But I did like the side carry option when she got bigger, and I used it as a back pack as recently as last summer (she was 4 and about 35lbs). I definitely got my money's worth, but look into front-facing options.
rere how does one do that research? I would love for my DH to redo our front yard! Instead I just hired a guy and have to pay a lot of money for him to do it - but I guess theresthe advantage of getting to tell him exactly what I want.
librarychica My baby is only 10 months and I’m already sad that I likely won’t get to do all this stuff again - I haven’t quite accepted it yet. I’m still hoping DH will change his mind even though I know it’s unlikely.
My DD has a super disgusting ailment that is not a huge deal besides being super gross. I don’t want to even mention it in case some of you haven’t dealt with it yet and would end up with nightmares about it
Well, Google seems to work. I just found out I can get a case of 1000 for around $52.
I have a slight update on DH and I. I feel like things have been getting better. We've laid down a lot of ground rules and come to an agreement on a lot of the issues we've struggled with in the past. While DH is stepping up to stop acting like a bachelor and/or just another child for me to deal with, I am tired of hearing him praise himself for it every time he does. He keeps pointing out every time he makes an effort, which is grating. Honestly, looking at our relationship, we're good at being friends and hanging out. When real life shows up, we butt heads and struggle to make it all work. I think (hope) we can get through it, because we both want to and we do have good times. But damn. Marriage is just so freaking hard. It doesn't look this hard when I see other couples.
xctsclrx, I had a March baby and used both a Baby Bjorn and an Ergo ALL THE TIME. First of all, I hated the bucket. HATED IT. So I never carried the kids in it unless it was cold or rainy and I needed to buckle them up inside and run out to the car. When I was dropping DD1 off at preschool, I used to see the other moms bring the buckets in and put them on the floor, prompting all the snotty, sneezy 3 year olds to run over and touch the baby. Nope. They couldn't get near her in the Baby Bjorn. Just being at the playground on maternity leave and weekends, the carrier made it easier for me to move around. And DD2 had some food allergy issues so she was super fussy for the first 2 months. Keeping her in the front carrier in the Ergo baby cocoon thing kept her comforted, and kept my arms free.
I would recommend a cheap baby bjorn for quick trips, but as she got bigger, it killed my neck and back. The Ergo was much more involved and took more practice to get her in alone. I also didn't like that there was no option for her to face out. Maybe that's changed? But I did like the side carry option when she got bigger, and I used it as a back pack as recently as last summer (she was 4 and about 35lbs). I definitely got my money's worth, but look into front-facing options.
+1. I used a carrier much more with DS2 since I was also chasing DS1 around. I didn’t have a Baby Bjorn for DS1, but got one for DS2 and it was much easier for quick on/off with a newborn. I switched back to the Ergo when he was about 15 lbs because it was more comfortable as he got bigger.