Miscellany

A) Micah got shorn this week. He was getting this very unflattering muffin-top from his new mesh BAHA band making him look like a demented aerobics instructor, so off we went to Snip-Its. Just as the stylist was prepping the clippers to have at it, he looked over at her and said, "Uh oh" but he sat still and let her clip and snip until a good bit of his hair was on the floor. Thea also got a haircut two days later. Flo, Thea's stylist at Snip-Its, only works Saturdays and Sundays so we had to trust someone new, but this stylist did an amazing job shaping up the cut that Flo originally did and getting Thea's random wisps under control. Thea was decked out in her knight's costume and green dinosaur backpack for the occasion, her sword and helmet stayed at home.

B) Thea's One Hundred Good Wishes Quilt arrived today. It's been almost four years in the making - or rather a few months in the acquisition phase, many more months in the sitting around phase and then the hand off of the fabric to Eleanor, the expert quilter, who volunteered to pull the project out of the abyss into which it had sunk in November 2007. It's beyond amazing, somehow she made all the random patterned fabric squares work together - and she added squares with the state flags of Maryland and New Jersey, the US flag, a crab, and better still the hideous Redskins fabric was relegated to the side while the Bears fabric had pride of place further in. Photos to follow. It was such a nice surprise because I had to work this morning and I returned home to a living room that was trashed. (Steve took the kids to visit his mother and then to Seaside for a walk on the beach so I came home to a quiet house.) I saved opening the box until after the debris field was cleaned up and order restored. Then after giving the quilt the proper amount of admiration and attention, I remembered to look upstairs - and yes, the bed still needed to be made.

C) I went to the most amazing continuing education program last Saturday. And it was free. Granted the presentations started at 7:30 am, which is just way too early - though breakfast was provided and copious quantities of Starbucks. It was at the Westin Forrestal which is just a hop and a skip from home so I could leave home at 7:10 and be signed in and on my way to the buffet by 7:20. The speaker on conjunctivitis totally rocked and had wonderful, really gross slides to go along with his talk, turning what I thought would be a total post-lunch snooze fest into the best session of the day. The two quotes of the day came courtesy of one of the co-presenters of the HPV (human papilloma virus) session: "Cancer is yucky" and "The anus is interesting." I think that cancer is a little, itty-bitty bit BEYOND yucky, and even in the context of HPV, the anus is, at best, approached with gloved hands and a bit of K-Y, if at all. Interesting? I don't think so.

D) This year I recertify so I need 150 contact hours of continuing education. My last re-cert was 2003, the year before Thea arrived. Since 2004, with free time at a premium, I felt like I had accomplished next to nothing in the way of CE and was getting very nervous because the recertification application will be arriving some time in the next couple of months (even though my certification doesn't expire until November 2008, the accrediting body wants its $400+ fee early, greedy buggers). Then a brochure for a national conference conveniently taking place in late June/early July practically in my mother's backyard arrived, followed by another for an NP conference in Philadelphia in May. Between those two events, the program last week and another two-day freebie in April, I figured I might just squeak by. So Thursday night, in a fit of inspired panic with a purpose, I dug out all the CE certificates from 2003 until now and put them in an Xcel spreadsheet. I have 118.1 hours. (Insert sound effect of me breaking my arm patting myself on the back.) Things are not dismal AT ALL, and I am much more industrious than I give myself credit, especially when those 118 hours are comprised of mostly one and two hour increments. Now I just need to make sure that I meet the requirement in terms of percentage of credits acquired through an ANCC-certified continuing education provider - that's probably where I'll fall short.

E) I got a comment on one of my more recent posts. Comments on posts since returning from China have be nil, giving me the feeling that I am pretty much writing this blog for myself - and for the kids if they are ever eventually interested in reading it. So if you're reading this regularly or just passing through, leave a note once in a while, it's like getting a present when I find one.

Yet another audiogram. . .

It's hard to believe that it has been three months since Micah's last audiogram, but today we had to make the pilgrimage up Route 1 to Edison for yet another hearing test. He was much more cooperative and tested consistently at 25 decibels with the BAHA on, 60 decibels with it off. Now we're off the hook for six months - and once that audiogram is done, he'll be seen annually. This is wonderful because parking at JFK is a major pain in the butt - usually I manage to find something relatively close, but this time we were out in the provinces beyond the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.

This past Friday Thea, Micah and I went to Family Fun Night at Summit Speech School - which being on call was not exactly hitting all cylinders as far as being fun. I spent a good twenty minutes in the ladies' bathroom, the quietest place I could find, returning patient phone calls. Thea thought the father/son clown/magician act was hysterical; I thought the father clown was totally disturbing: his make-up had a tiny cross between his eyebrows and Chinese characters on his left cheek. Disturbing. Emmett Kelly he wasn't.

Monday's parent group was great because each of the facilitators thought the other was with us, so we were on our own. I got all my call slips written up, cleaned out expired coupons from my purse and hung out with Baby Ana who had decided that she would rather hang with her mother and the other moms than play with the Connor, Cormac, Campbell and Micah. Eventually someone figured it out and out the window went the unstructured, just-hanging-out format.

Pictures from Micah's laid-back, almost un-birthday to come. He got a Radio Flyer tricycle with handles/a parent steering column. It's still a little big and he hasn't figured out how to keep his feet on the pedals, but it's only a matter of time.

Today the Boy is TWO

...and he woke up happy, played in his crib for a bit and then starting sending his come-and-get-me signals. Birthday Boy had breakfast with his father while Thea and I made a run for the store (BB was getting the last egg in the 'fridge) and a side trip to Toys-R-Us to return the little adjustable bike (no assembly required) for a tricycle with a push-handle (some assemply required).

"Some assembly required" is right up there with "I'll call you in the morning" in the pantheon of greatest lies ever told. Anything requiring a screwdriver, a wrench and a hammer is a major project, made more major because BB was right there in the thick of it to lend a hand because if there is whacking to be done, he wants to be in on the action. (BB's father was upstairs with Thea because she was having a meltdown and was getting a time-out, so he wasn't available to distract him - not that he would have been distracted.

Since our oven is kaput, Thea and I bought Muppet cupcakes, two Elmos, two Cookie Monsters (or maybe they're Grover; they're blue, whatever) and two Oscar the Grouch. Oscar's cupcakes are chocolate, so one of them is mine, mine, mine.

BB is currently napping so photos of him on the new bike will have to wait. I also need to take him along to the store to fit his little dome with a helmet. We didn't get one for Thea until she was riding independently, but somehow I would feel better if he had one now. Bad thing is that the helmet will probably interfere with wearing his BAHA.