Month: February 2009

Today is the 100th day of school celebration (school wide), Superhero Day (school wide/part of Spirit Week – He’s wearing a Spiderman t-shirt and underwear though he has no clue who Spiderman is), Valentine’s Day and a good-bye party for one of his assistant teachers.  Phew. 

We just heard yesterday about the Valentine’s Day bit so last night Duhdee and I made up some Valentines.  I’m going to give Duhdee equal credit here because he used a razor blade to make the slits where the lollipop sticks pass through the butterfly and probably saved me a digit or two!  I think they’re super cute.

The butterfly pattern was from Skip to My Lou.  She has tons of great ideas!  I didn’t have enough googly eyes so we added antennae instead.

I sure hope Monkey enjoys his day and doesn’t get too hyperaroused by the jam packed schedule!

We have a built-in cabinet in our dining room and it’s filled with framed pictures of friends and family.  Two days ago Monkey began pointing at one of the photos and exclaiming “Yick!” 

We are so excited!  You see, he’s pointing at a picture of one of his cousins and NAMING him.  This morning I dug out a wallet sized photo of Yick and let Monkey have it.  I really have to wonder what else is in that brain of his that he hasn’t yet managed to get out. 

After nearly 5 years I had lost a bit of my belief that we’d ever experience this discovery of language with him.   I still hoped we would but I was resigning myself to a lifetime of not hearing him communicate verbally.  Now I’m getting greedy.  I want more, now!  Please?

Monkey is feeling pretty cwappy.  The fever rears it’s ugly head off and on and his nose is like a fountain of snot.  When Duhdee called the teacher to let her know Monkey would be staying home again today she said she sent 3 students home yesterday with the same cold.  They were disinfecting the classroom when we called, trying to stop the spread of this evil virus.

The teacher also informed us that one of the assistants will be spending her last day in the classroom on Friday.  She has been given a promotion to lead teacher in another class!  We’re very happy for her but Monkey will miss her.  The class will have a permanent substitute for the rest of the year.  She will return to assist in the class in July for the summer portion (this classroom runs 11 months/year vs a normal school calendar year) so we’ll be seeing her again soon.

I am starting to feel pretty cwappy too, unfortunately, but I have closings this week so I’m at work.  Bummer.

What makes this a double bummer is that our new featherbed/topper was delivered yesterday and I was really, really, really tempted to stay home and just lay in bed all day enjoying it.  As it was, I retired to the bedroom at 8PM last night after putting Monkey to bed and surfed the net and watched TV in total comfort.   Our new, super luxurious, sheets should arrive today as well.  I may never leave our bed again.  *drool*

Yesterday, I read a few messages on the FX Listserve about Therapeutic Listening.  I quickly e-mailed the OT at Children’s Hospital and Monkey’s OT at the public school inquiring about it.  I got responses from both that same day.  I learned that my insurance will not cover it but that the school has someone who is trained in it and my son’s OT and teacher have both implemented these programs in the classroom before.  They were going to discuss how to add it to Monkey’s day at their team meeting today neither the OT nor the teacher saw any reason not to try it.

Woah.  This is a perfect example of how this school system can get things done when you have the right people involved.

Regarding my insurance.  It’s awful.  They will pay for us to take Monkey to the yearly evaluations at Children’s but they will not pay for a SINGLE service that is recommended. Not even if we get a letter of medical necessity.  They simply refuse to cover anything related to developmental therapies.  If we were to pay out of pocket for the extra OT for sensory integration that Monkey could really benefit from we’d have to find an additional $1,200/month.  If I ever won the lottery, I wouldn’t retire, I’d spend it all on therapy.  So sad.

We were busier than one-armed wallpaper hangers.

Saturday we did all the normal Saturday chores, deep cleaning, baking bread, laundry, etc. AND had a party which added baking cupcakes, blowing up balloons and stocking up on some party supplies.  We had a good time, it was just a busy day. 

We discovered that while Monkey has totally mastered the art of sharing OTHER kids’ toys he’s not yet mastered sharing HIS toys, lol.  Munchkin (the 4 year old cousin) was a pretty good sport about it and we did intervene.  Bratty behavior will not be tolerated Mr. Man!

On Sunday, we took a few hours to ourselves and then set off on our trip to Maine around 1.  We stopped to buy some more underwear for Monkey since he’s now in it full time during the days he needed a few more pairs.  We had to convince him that he could have three packages, he was quite content with one and kept trying to put the others back, silly kid!

We then drove on to Papa’s house.  Monkey was a little hesitant about walking into the house, it had been a long time since he’d been there.  Normally, we see Papa at my parents’ house next door.  Once we were through the door though he did great!  He said “Hi Papa” which thrilled my grandfather to pieces.  He played with the box of ancient toys (seriously, they’re toys I played with when I was his age and they were not new then either!) and explored the house  while I sat and chatted.  He wanted Duhdee to go with him on his exploration junkets, he was too hesitant to go alone, but we’ll work on that.  We’re planning to put in a 3 sisters garden on our plot of land next door so we’ll be up there a lot more this summer.

We stopped by to visit my parents for a little while but they’ve been sick and it was getting late so we headed out to find dinner and make our way home.  We stopped for a late dinner and Monkey’s head didn’t hit  his pillow until after 9 and he was in a great mood the entire day.  Amazing.  He bounced right up this AM and headed off to school happily to boot.  I wish I could say the same about me, lol.

We’re all so happy that the weekend has arrived. Poor Monkey has been very emotional all day…he’s just so tired by the end of each week.  We have some fun plans this weekend.  One of Monkey’s cousins (Grammy, we need a blog nickname for her!) is coming to visit tomorrow along with Grammy and her Daddy to celebrate her 4th birthday.

Then on Sunday we’re going to visit my family.  I really need to see my Papa.  He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s (most likely FXTAS though, I need to see if they ordered the FX test.)  I had a very vivid dream this week where he told me he was going to miss me.  Anyway.  A visit seems in order.  Monkey will enjoy seeing everyone and so will I.

Anyone want a dog?  He’s cute, see?

That’s the only reason he’s survived this long…he just pee’d on the floor.  Not in a puddle…but in a long, looping line that covered over 10 feet.  $#&*&^*%(*^ dog.  Why do I feel bad for yelling at him??  Click on the picture for the full size/full effect and you might see why.  $#&*&^*%(*^ dog.