Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Christmas Shopping Update

I got my doll. And my outfit. I had to make them search the back stock room (just in case you're interested, the Tar*et website may indicate that an item is available, but in the case of certain items, that means that various types of the same item come in at the same time and available simply means that some KIND of that item is available. Not necessarily the specific one you are looking for. But they had it. Then I had to search the store for a coupon because I left mine at home. Go figure. Got both. All good.

Now I have a problem. Last year I hid all the Christmas stuff in the trunk of the car because I could lock it. Not a plan that works so well with my hatchback with the big giant window in the back. What was I thinking? Maybe I can hide them in the storage closet at work or something.


I got home from shopping and one of the fish was dead. I am horrifically squeamish about dead fish. With my eyes half closed I managed to get it out of the fish tank and flushed. I think Max or Eagle (whichever one is not dead) misses his buddy. Or possibly tried to eat his buddy because I forgot to feed them this morning during the mad dash out of the house so as not to be late for the IEP meeting. But the goldfish are almost two years old now. Quite geriatric by goldfish standards. Though he seemed to be swimming around just fine yesterday..so not sure what happened today. It's a mystery.

IEP went okay. We're going on a specific behavior goal plan where she checks in every morning and gets a specific behavior goal for the day. At the end of the day she checks out and gets to chat about how well the goal was reached or not reached. She gets stickers for good choices. I'm not sure how effective it's going to be, but at least it's something concrete she can see, so it's worth a try. She also gets a little sheet that the teachers get to fill out when they notice negative behaviors occurring. Part of this is for documentation purposes because there has been very little documentation thus far. Having motor breaks in the OT room once or twice a day has not been shot down. They think they can work that into the schedule. When we were discussing that piece the administrator thought there were other kids who would benefit from the same type of thing. I'm sure there are many of them. Why there isn't a program in place to provide that service to the kids who would benefit from this is beyond me. Well, it's money and staffing of course. But still annoying. We're already taking placement and transition for first grade. We all agree that handling that the right teacher and the transition are of the utmost importance.

Academically Jupiter is just fine. It's all the behavior and anxiety issues that challenge her. But she's working hard and Mrs. VerdantLand and I are very proud of her.

tech help

If anybody knows how I can get my blog to play a song (guess what song?) please comment and let me know..I am so not technically inclined

thanks

Storm (Midnight's Song) Lyrics

Jupiter is watching an episode of the Saddle Club and this song just came on. Jupiter asked me to find it online for her. I would have found it anyway even if she hadn't asked me because it just made me cry. Here are the words.




A new day has begun
The worst is over now but the damage has been done
And you bear the scars of everything that you've been through
Now you have someone who believes in you

Free like the earth
Strong as the mountain
Free like the ocean
Wild in the storm
Free like the fire burning
Brighter than a star
Free like the wind
Whispering in your heart


The brightest star I know
I just want to see your true colors show
There within your heart let your light shine for all to see
So you can be the best that you can be


Free like the earth
Strong as the mountain
Free like the ocean
Wild in the storm
Free like the fire burning
Brighter than a star
Free like the wind
Whispering in your heart
I'm free

Wherever you find your home
You can take us with you wherever you roam
There's a place within our hearts and you'll always be there
You're earth water fire and air

Free like the earth
Strong as the mountain
Free like the ocean
Wild in the storm
Free like the fire burning
Brighter than a star
Free like the wind
Whispering in your heart
I'm Free
Free like the ocean
Free like the fire burning
Free like the wind
Whispering in your heart

Vapir & balla slprs

Juipter has totally gotten the "kindergarten writing" skill down. She now sounds out words and sentences and writes them 100% phonetically. Sometimes I can read it. Mostly I come up short and Jupiter tells me I can't read. Just because Mrs. VerdantLand can look at a page of kindergarten writing and read it like she was reading regular English writing.

Last Thursday I was emptying her backpack and I pulled out a red and black painting clearly labled "Vapir." She loves vapir's all of a sudden. I'm not sure why. I do not have her watching Buffy or anything like that. Maybe it's a Halloween holdout. Anyway, she painted a lovely picture in class. Complete with lots of red blood. It rated right up there with the "Life as an Army Demolition Expert" homework assignment. Fortunately it was in her regular classroom, not the art room. For some reason Mrs. VerdantLand didn't feel the need to hang the picture on the classroom door.

Aside from Vapir's, she can now write and draw in her journals. In the plural. She has many journals. She has at least three kids in her class also journaling because they see Jupiter getting such joy from her journals. She wrote a picture for her riding instructor (who, btw, is much quicker at reading kindergarten writing than I am) and labled that. She wrote a sign last week that said "Mi Mom is mad bekuz I lost mi balla slprs." Which was accurate. On Friday night I went nuts when I was cleaning her room and found her ballet bag shoved in the corner of the closet, packed with various dress up costumes, tap shoes shoved in a corner, leotard and tights mixed up in her bedsheets, and no balla slprs to be found anywhere in the house. I was convinced that I accidentally threw them away in the bag of Sunday School project scraps I accumulated while waiting for dance class to end the week before last. Since we didn't find the shoes in the lost and found, the dance school manager let us go through the back room box of shoes that people can take. Jupiter found a suitable pair of balla slprs in the box and we took those. I was less mad because I didn't have to buy a whole new pair. Jupiter likes the new slippers better because they are made out of velvet and are more comfortable than the leather ones were on her wide feet.

Today I bought gas. Since Jupiter wasn't with me, I went through the backseat of the car looking for stuff to throw away. I checked the secret compartment in the console. Guess what I found there. That's right...the lost balla slprs. Go figure. Guess we didn't look in the secret compartment. And I thought it was MY fault they were lost. HA!!

Vacation!!!!!!!!!!!

And peace reigned. Aaaaaaahhhhh.

Yesterday was a GREAT day. We stayed home almost all day after our usual weekend run around. Sunday she was invited to a birthday party at the pool.

Yesterday we just chilled out. She hauled all of her old Little People stuff out of the sunporch and played with them very nicely while I stayed in the room and did other stuff. After lunch she snuggled with me on the couch and we watched Smokey Mountain Christmas. She threw a celebration for her cat Autumn Leaf. We dropped off a pie at the Monday night meal. We had dinner. She did some art on the floor after supper. At one point she used the tape (the very same tape that over the weekend went flying at my head when she got mad at it) and pointed out to me how she wasn't getting mad at the tape.

I agreed. She wasn't getting mad at me either. It was THE BEST day. Jupiter noticed too. I LOVE vacation. I wish we could do it all the time. I'm sure all the time vacation wouldn't be idyllic. But it's sure nice this week. I'll take it.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Hello from Maine

yes, we're still here. Not much time for posting. Or sleeping. Or breathing, it seems like. What scares me is we haven't even gotten to the "busy" holiday time yet. Every year I say we're not going to do as much during holiday time. Every year it just gets worse. Haven't figured that one out yet.



November has arrived in all its behaviorial glory. Every year school gets more interesting in November. It's like the anxiety has dropped enough so that she goes into "test the boundaries" mode. Today she got into some kind of interaction with a boy on the playground. Recess has become more challenging the last couple weeks. It seems to be too much unstructured time for her to handle right now. Jupiter ended up with sand in her eyes and had to go to the nurse. She said the boy threw sand in her eyes. Which was true. She didn't mention the parts of the story leading up to the sand throwing. Fortunately my mother had lunch duty and can tell when Jupiter is not telling the "entire" story. Or telling the story in a manner which suits her purposes. She came home with a sweater in her backpack which belongs to another girl at school. She "accidentially" picked it up when she was getting her coat. Since the coat is big, pink, and puffy, and the sweater is thin and blue, I can see where she might have been confused.



IEP meeting a week from Tuesday. Probably just the right time to have it. If we have it too early, the true colors aren't all showing. If we don't have it soon enough, she doesn't get the support she needs. So there's probably a 24 hour window which is the perfect time. It was actually supposed to be a couple of weeks ago, but the behavioral specialist had to cancel at the last minute after she hurt her back and had to go to the doctor. This time we're having it on a teacher workshop day...no students. I don't suppose they are going to let her go to the OT room every day at lunch recess. I also don't suppose they're going to let her go to the OT room every day for ten minutes before afternoon classes. Which is when I think OT would benefit her the most. Can't wait to have this meeting and see how well our views of Jupiter's needs mesh. I know the classroom teacher will advocate for us. We got the "good" administrator. We will see.



I tried to cancel my gym membership the other day. I was waiting for November because I signed into a two year contract (idiot) and was waiting for my two years to be up so I could cancel without penalty. I called the gym to cancel and they said I had to call the membership company in Massachusetts. So I did. They said I have to send them something in writing and give them thirty days notice.



So basically, I had a two hour window on the anniversary date of the day two years ago when I signed the original contract to cancel without getting charged for an extra month. They're going to charge me for December and there's nothing I can do about it. I sent them a notice in writing and I sent it certified return receipt (which was another $5.54) so I would know EXACTLY what day they received my notification in writing.



Not pleased. I was hoping to take the money I was spending on the gym membership and put it towards a membership at the Y so Jupiter can do more swimming than she does now. The gym jerks put a crimp in that plan. Though I guess I'm the one who signed the contract in the first place. At the Y you can cancel your membership ANYTIME YOU WANT, btw.

Then tonight while Jupiter made a last minute jaunt to the paint shop to paint with the boys (she had to look her prettiest to see the boys, btw) I made a flying trip to Target so I could try to pick up Our Generation Lily Anna and use my toy book coupon to get a free outfit. The store is out of Lily Anna, but, they said, I could order her online. I am quite happy to order the doll online, but they don't sell the doll OUTFITS on line, so unless I get them both in the store at the same time, my coupon is worthless. The outfit is $11.99. I want to use my coupon. Or, if I don't want to order the doll online, I can try the stores in Biddeford or Topsham, or Augusta. Which I would be happy to do, if I ever went to Biddeford, or Thopsham, or Augusta. I could always go to those places, but not without my child. Also defeating the purpose of going to the store.

I WILL get my doll. AND my outfit. Or, at the very least, a $10 gift card so I can go to the store at a seperate time to get my outfit.

Well, probably not. But dreams are nice to have.

Monday, November 2, 2009

I hate hate hate daylight savings time

seriously. whoever invented this whole daylight savings time gig didn't have a kid. Especially one who relies on routine and structure and so forth.



About 45 minutes ago, we were in the living room and Jupiter was playing nicely. She dug her art box out from under her bed and we looked at every single thing in the art box. Then she played with the wooden house and the wooden boat that were in the art box. She was playing very nicely.

Then she proceded over to her puzzle/game shelf. She threw everything from the middle two shelves onto the floor. She told me she was looking for the thing she wanted to play with. Which was so not true. She started to throw the things she "wanted" to play with into a seperate pile. I told her she couldn't play with anything until she was responsible for the big mess she had just made and cleaned up. She balked at it. She started to haphazardly throw boxes onto the shelf. The pizza pieces and puzzle pieces she threw at the general vicinity of the shelf. I told her that was not how the games were on the shelf and she needed to do a better job so her pieces didn't get lost. Or, I could pick up the toys and they would become mine.

Needless to say, I am now the proud owner of several new toys and games which now reside in my bedroom and which she may earn back. Jupiter earned a one way ticket to bed, where she lost two of the three books we were going to read because she was kicking and screaming and hitting, so our book reading time was greatly reduced. She is not ready to apologize for spitting at me yet.

I forgot that when the clock says 7:15, it's really 8:15 in her routine and therefore she should already have been in bed. Sigh.

And yesterday, after the blood sugar crash induced fit, when she calmed down, I was telling her about how I tried to bake sourdough rolls on my new baking stone and they all stuck mightily to the baking stone and how disappointed I was because I was going to bring them to work and I wanted them to look nice. And she said, "I'm sorry that happened."

Wow.

She's asleep now. Tomorrow is a new day.