Go Fly a Kite

This is Micah at school "flying" a paperbag kite he made this week. He was so excited about it - it's nice that his teacher, Miss Margie, sent us a photo. His buddy Ava is in the background with her kite. Today was Sports Day at school, his teacher already emailed that he had a blast and was super active. I'm hoping he'll be tired enough to sleep part of the way up to Haskell; we're going to pick up a race car toddler bed frame. $12.95 on eBay. This weekend the crib comes down, end of an era around here.

Whoops

Missed a sort of big one: Micah's 2nd Adoption Anniversary. July 9th or 10th, depending on whether one bases it on physical custody (the 9th) or the actual signing of papers (the 10th), the anniversary completely blew by us. Ooops. He is clueless at present, about adoption that is. Hard to believe that two years ago we were just getting home from our post-China beach week and we had a baby in the house whose only word was "Up!" Now, two years, three trips to the Emergency Room, one toilet later, quite a few people have asked us, 'Does he ever shut up?' And there are times I wish he could be a little quieter, he probably never will shut up - too many people have invested too much time and effort to get him this chatty. So chatty, he even talks in his sleep, which amazes me.


Got his pre-op clearance appointment made for next week, got to get him to the lab for a blood draw. Sigh, that will not be fun. His doctor is lucky because I've completed a good bit of the paperwork.

I'll have to circle September 6th on the calendar, it will be the 5th anniversary of Thea's adoption - and she does understand quite a bit more than Micah about being adopted, and I don't want to forget it in the hoopla and preparation of schools' starting (on the 8th (Micah, I think) and 9th (Thea, again not sure), I just want to make it through August and Scarlett O'Hara the rest for now.

CPR

I thought my CPR certification expired in May of this year - it's good for two years, so it's easy to forget about. And this time I really did it. It had expired back in February, oops. Score another point for mommy-brain.

Thanks to my wonderful assistant, Meghan, who did all the leg work to register both me and the other NP I work with (who had a much, much better reason for letting her CPR card expire), tonight was the night to get legal as far as BLS goes. Thanks to the office for paying for it . In my mind, suffering DOES NOT build character, especially when one has to pay for one's own torture.

Thank you to the instructor, who made it practically painless - except for a little stress on the knees kneeling over the Resusci-Annie to do the chest compressions, and wonderfully short.

Another piece of bureaucratic minutiae, the State of New Jersey actually processed my CDS license in record time. A CDS is a controlled/dangerous substance license, which is a ridiculous $20 annual fee and the time it takes to go on-line and answer the questions, plug in the Visa card number and print the receipt. Why this is necessary when I already have a DEA license (which is federal, good for three years, and costs a about $350 more than the CDS license), I have no idea. It probably costs NJ more than $20 to maintain the record, send out the renewals and process the document. Or maybe I'm just cynical. Me? Cynical? Never.

1,000 ! ! ! !

The little 'hit' counter that I put on the blog almost 15 months after I started writing registered it's one-thousandth hit today. Proof that a watched pot does not boil, I checked in yesterday three or four times only to see 998 each time.

I'm probably more excited than one should be under the circumstances.

In the Aisle at the Grocery Store. . .

. . .I wrote about going to the grocery store, but forgot about the most interesting part. As we were cruising the soup/canned goods aisle, Thea hanging off the front of the cart, Micah in the kid seat, groceries piling up, a lady comes over to us and says, "He has the same thing I have!" and pulls back the hair behind her ear to show us her BAHA on an implanted post. Yikes, attack of the BAHA lady! She is clearly thrilled to meet another person with BAHAs, Micah who is usually incredibly sociable, doesn't quite know what to make of this lady, who is now joined by her husband and two kids. Her microtia is not quite as severe as Micah's, and she said she had auditory canal surgery (though was still using her BAHAs and I couln't really see her canals clearly. It made her day, but the kids were just as happy to move on to the next aisle.

We had a funny exchange about who made her aids . When I asked if she had Cochlear BAHAs, she said, no. They were made in Sweden (where Cochlear's HQ is.) It was one of those you had to be there moments, straight out of "Who's on First?"

Some days I think I might actually prefer those who make stupid comments or stare better than those who come up to you oozing enthusiasm and energy. At least on those days when I don't get to hit the Dunkin Donuts before I hit the grocery store.

Sunday

Today was our last full day as a threesome. No specific goals, just hanging out.

Yesterday we went to the office for the morning, where not much of anything was happening - warm weather and blue sky tends to keep people occupied. So I worked on my lab letters, clearing out my in-box and getting things organized. The children were occupied by Earla, and the DVD player and Leapster that we brought along.

We invited Earla out to lunch - I'd promised Thea that we'd go to Tiger Noodles. It was nice to have another person along since Micah is not one to sit still and stay in his chair for long. We offered her a ride to Diamond Nation in Flemington where her daughter was playing in a softball tournament. Love that GPS, it got us home via the back roads (once on Route 31 through the Flemington Circle, one of Satan's best creations being quite enough.) I put up the rectangular pool and the kids went in for awhile - which turned to more of a refereeing job for me. Until I yanked Micah out when his lips turned purplish blue. Thea, who has a thicker layer of protective padding, stayed in, paddling back and forth wedged in her swimming ring for another 40 minutes.

After dinner we went for a walk (me) and bike ride (the kids) which made me realize we have got to get Thea a bigger bike. I got her bike in 2007 shortly before we went to China; it was all of $20 at a consignment shop where I was buying the Stand-n-Stroll double stroller that we took along when we picked up Micah. It fits Micah now, though he can be just as happy tooling along on his tricycle.

The ride/walk landed us at the neighborhood park, where Thea showed me she can now hang upside down without holding on - great, don't do it in front of your brother, if he does it, he'll fall on his head.

Home for ice cream, baths, bedtime reading and sleep. Micah and I read "Llama, Llama, Red Pajama" and "Bathtime for Biscuit."

Micah, who has been asleep by 8:30 pm for the last few nights, was up at 6:30 am today. Love the early bedtime, hate the consequences.

After breakfast, we headed for ShopRite. My intention was to dump the dynamic duo in Scrunchy's Playhouse so I could zip through the shopping list, their intention was to stick to me like ticks.

Then we headed to Panera (Thea's request), which turned out to be a brilliant idea because of the plaza with the fountain (which isn't really a fountain). It's a series of about eight to ten paired water spouts coming out of the cement at varying intervals and varying heights.

Thea's played in it almost every summer, but Micah's managed to miss out until today. It took him exactly thirty seconds before he was soaked from head to toe and just squealing with utter delight at this amazing thing. Thea managed to run through it, play in it, stomp on the spouts, barely getting a drop on her.

I sat on a bench, taking pictures, enjoying the sunshine and the joy of my children. Until a dripping Micah, who is in a tighty-whitey and shorts and has been doing remarkably well with the whole potty-training thing, comes up to me and says "Mommy, I have to pee, NOW." Great, it's not like I can just bop back into Panera with a child who is making puddles of one sort or another.

Fortunately it's a hot day, no one was nearby and the puddle dried quickly.

Once Thea had had enough, we headed for the car and were just about to cross the parking lot when Thea sounded the potty alarm. Fortunately she's got better control and knew the way back to the restroom at Panera. I threw Micah in to a Michael's cart and rolled him to the door at Panera's closest to the restroom.

His clothes were cold, so a stripped him down, and while we were waiting for Thea, he sounds another alarm for the bathroom. Oh joy, naked boy, pile of wet clothes, shopping cart, purse.

We went in. And after settling his little butt on the toilet and checking on Thea, he promptly jumps off, locks the stall and says "I need PRIVACY, Mommy." Crap, crap, crap. He's naked, in public and is telling me that he needs his privacy.

And since he was in the water, his BAHAs are in my purse, not on his head. Damn, damn, damn. The only way he's going to hear me is if I'm banging out 70 decibels, which is almost as good as broadcasting to the entire restaurant.

Finally we got out of the bathroom, back to the shopping cart (great camoflage) and out to the parking lot and Micah into a pull-up and on the way home. Micah was asleep before we were even out of the parking lot.

On the way home we called Thea's friend Emily's to see if a backyard pool date was in the cards for the afternoon. Fortunately they were looking to get out of the house, even if it was just to come over to our inflatable pool and swampy backyard. Emily is the the perfect friend because she comes with a little brother who is about six months younger than Micah. Micah spent the first part of the playdate comatose on my chair, and then he had no interest in the pool.

The other three stayed out until they were thoroughly chilled, and then the playdate moved inside. Micah and Nate mostly wanted to follow their older siblings around, and the girls just wanted to play without the interference of little brothers. The kids had dinner and more playing. Then after their friends went home, Thea wanted to swim some more, and Micah decided that he wanted to join her.

They did really well - even though both wanted the swim ring, with the help of the microwave timer set for five minutes each time, they managed to share.

Micah stayed out until his teeth were chattering and the lips were blue, so he came in to get tossed in the tub. Thea stayed out for another 30 minutes paddling around with the swim ring until it was her turn for the tub.

Good timing, a thunderstorm was brewing and really started kicking up - enough to knock out the DishTV (bye, bye True Blood and Entourage).

Flying Solo

I'm on my own with the kids until Monday. So far, so good. Everyone was in bed by 9 pm, teeth brushed, and minimal nagging.

Thea is sleeping in her orange YWCA camp t-shirt. She looks like a traffic cone. Today was supposed to be a trip to the Shore, but it got changed to a visit to the movies, and deja vu of Ice Age 3D. She went over to her friend's house again after camp, Micah and I went to Target during rush hour which was not the smartest move.

Because Thea is wearing an orange t-shirt, Micah is in his orange Summit School shirt. He's back to his shameless adoration and copying of his older sibling, which I am using to my advantage by having her model the behavior I want him to do. In this way, I got both of them to eat their broccoli tonight without dawdling. Watching him sit next to her at dinner, aping her every move was a hoot. Thea picks up her hot dog, takes a bite, Micah does the same, she dips it in ketchup (sick! mustard is for hot dogs), he does the same, and on and on.

Now I just need to pull off getting him, up fed and on the van and then take Thea to camp and I get a day to myself.

Once Upon an Aching Knee. . . .

Two days ago, at lunch, I was trying to be nice by going around the table to sit closer to the drug rep who had brought lunch to hear about her products, and in doing so I hit my left upper thigh against the corner of the window sill.

Which was bad enough, I whacked it hard enough to break the skin and got a nice egg-sized bruise. But that pain passed quickly and my right knee soon began to scream at me. My right foot must have been firmly planted on the floor, so the jolt against the sill jarred the knee. Within minutes it swelled up so that the neoprene sleeve I wearing became painfully tight.

And I left the lunch room to go back to my office to whimper and whine.

The knee that had been seeming to improve to the point where I was taking less and less of the medication feels like it's back to square one.

One step closer to going for an MRI. One of these days, when I have a spare moment.

This past Sunday Thea and Micah got to spend the afternoon with Tesh, and Mary (Tesh's daughter), and Jesse (the practice administrator's son) while Steve and I went to the wedding of one of the doctors who used to be at the practice. They got to go see Ice Age 3D, visit the cats and play mini-golf while we got to hang out with grown-ups. The bride's grandmother lives in a house on the Delaware River, and the family must've bribed the weather gods because they had a perfect day. Sunny, bright, a few clouds in the sky, sailboats bobbing at the docks. During the time between the ceremony and reception, Steve and I went with Monique (one of the NPs at the practice who moved on to greener pastures in retail health) and Charlie to a dockside bar on the river for a drink.

The reception was an food fest, from the cocktail hour to the dinner, to the dessert bar. So we were stuffed like ticks and slightly liquored up. So much so that Monique actually stayed for most of the reception despite her 'weddings give me a rash' attitude. And as a bonus, we snagged an invitation to her pool in a couple of weeks.


Thea is having fun at the YWCA's Adventure Camp, a two-week break from YingHua. Her friend Emily is in the same group (the Lions), and she gets to go swimming every day. Micah is doing well in school and the calendar is gradually creeping closer to the surgery date as summer rolls on. . . .

Off Topic Rant

Not about kids, microtia/atresia, adoption, or the usual.

How to annoy your health care provider:

Saturday afternoon. Office hours are over. It's the weekend. Call the office. Leave a message with the answering service that you need a medication renewed. Your health care provider looks at your demographics and medications in the electronic medical record, and assumes that it's one of the medications that regulate blood pressure or cholesterol. In other words, important.

Even though it's not an emergency-emergency, health care provider returns the one call, only to find out that the patient needs his prescription for Viagra 100mg renewed. It's Saturday night, after all.

THIS IS NOT ANYWHERE REMOTELY CLOSE TO AN EMERGENCY, it's so far from one, though it will be come one when the HCP has irritation leads to her having an MI. After she decides whether to laugh or fume.

Damn Pfizer, damn those Viva Viagra commercials.

And because the health care provider doesn 't feel like contending with further phone calls or wasting time or breath giving a lecture on what is the nature of an actual emergency, the prescription is renewed.

This gets filed right up there with patient who called the answering service on a Thanksgiving Day a few years ago needing a refill of her Premarin. Perhaps a few hot flashes would help her roast her turkey and help her remember to renew her medications during normal office hours. (And I will admit to being a chump and renewing the prescription; my bark is much worse than my bite.)

But because HCP is annoyed, no refills on the Viagra prescription. Patient can tick off one of the health care provider's colleagues on another Saturday afternoon.

I hate being on call sometimes, though it does provide material when I have nothing else to write about. If nothing is happening I'll have to recycle the poison ivy on the privates story (another patient on another Thanksgiving Day, a tale whose lesson is sometimes you should sacrifice privacy if you cannot recognize poison ivy before relieving yourself in the woods) or the compound swear word story from the days of working in prison.

Adventures of Bunny Bear

This morning at 4 m, both children came to sleep in our bed, Micah probably crawled in earlier, but woke up and was moving around and chattering, Thea had a little bloody nose. After 30 minutes to get them settled and back to sleep, I found myself wedged between them, awake and needing to go to the bathroom and with almost no room to move. So I slithered, wiggled, readjusted Thea whose legs were hanging of the bed, and left. On the way back, I decided to try Thea's bed where the large white tiger was taking a lot of space, but probably wouldn't kick me in the kidneys or try to take over what little space was mine.

Not the best start to the day.

But the day goes by with the usual chaos until we arrive at that time of day when Tesh returns with Micah and then he and I drive off to pick up Thea.

Except the first words out of Tesh's and Micah's mouths were, "Micah left Bunny Bear at school."

Oh, sh*t. Well then, that puts yet another kink in the day. My usually sunny, happy guy is visibly upset, mouth is quivvering, tears are welling.

And I had to survive a 20 minute trip to Lawrenceville with a sobbing little boy crying, "I want my Bunny Bear" in just the most piteous little voice.

So, since I went to extremes about two years ago when we thought Thea's tiger could have been at the rest stop on the Eastern Shore, it seemed like something similar needed to be done.

After signing out Thea from YingHua, I got out the cell phone and started by calling Ela, Micah's itinerant teacher (until March of this year).

And sympathizing with our plight, Ela called Miriam (she's the coordinator of the parent-infant program).

Miriam called the school, where by some stroke of good fortune the custodian Craig was still around, and despite my misdirection about Bunny Bear either being in the room where Micah naps or in his his locker, he found Bunny Bear on the floor in the bathroom in Micah's classroom.

And by another stroke of good fortune, Steve was driving home from an afternoon bridge match and was in a place where he could make a detour to go to the school to pick up the bear.

Which necessitated all the phone calls made in reverse order to arrange the hand off.

Micah kept going to the powder room window to check for the arrival of the Bunny Bear.

So Bunny Bear is safe at home tonight, taking a bath in the washing machine to celebrate because he was packaged with a note that said "Wash Me" - he's overdue, but Micah likes him that way. All the good smells get washed out, the drool, the dirt, all the stuff the makes it his most loved stuffed animal.

Thank you, Ela.

Thank you, Miriam.

Thank you, Craig.

Thank you, Summit School for being the sort of place you can call a staff member about a dirty, smell cross-dressing bunny-bear and they understand its importance to a little guy's happiness.

Windshield vs. Bug

Some days you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug, or so the song goes.

Me today: Bug, making a rather large splat on the windshield.

Forgot the power cord to my laptop, brought home said laptop which was already sending low battery warnings before I shut it down. Make dinner, drive back to the office, grab the power cord, drive back.

And there goes 60 minutes of my life I'm not going to get back.

I left the office to run to the post office after the morning session, not seeing that there was a provider meeting. Fortunately no one else was ahead of me in line because it was the postal clerk who makes that Tim Conway character from the old Carol Burnett Show look like a speedy genius. So I was late for the meeting, but a least I got my parcels mailed. (A book listed on Sunday on half.com, already sold and an envelope for my mother, I can't remember the last time I went to the post office - probably when the cost of stamps increased.)

Another book was purchased today, so I have to find time to go back to the post office. I love half.com - getting rid of books that aren't worth keeping (Bitter Is The New Black - the author footnotes as often as I use parentheses, which is damn annoying, buh-bye book, hope your new owner is a Nordstrom's-obsessed Republican who can perhaps related better to the story.)

Weekend Update

Call this a weekend of a whole lot of nothing much special, and it was good. A little bit of cleaning/purging yesterday. Hanging out and straightening up (finding the Fisher-Price police car parked behind a bin in my closet - it's been MIA for days.)

The pools went up Saturday, and the kids got in a quick swim Saturday after coming back from visiting their grandmother. Today Thea's friend Emily came over so they could have a splash party - now we have three pools: our original baby pool, the large rectangular pool from Aunt Shannon and the pool we got last weekend while at Oma's (which she didn't want to keep at her house.)

I went through back issues of The Journal for Nurse Practitioners and finished a half dozen CME tests, put up a stack of books for sale on half.com, and picked up the nine thousand Matchbox cars, trains, playing cards and other debris that Micah has scattered over the living room and foyer.

To be finished off with a dish of chicken and cashews (reheated), the NY Times crossword, True Blood and the season premier of Entourage.

And the good thing about this weekend is that my right knee is merely making me aware of its presence versus its usual shrieking at the top of its lungs at the end of the day. It will go back to being miserable after about four hours of pounding the floor tomorrow at work, but it was nice to have a break for a couple of days.

Fourth of July Weekend

We managed to avoid a lot of the beach and NJ Turnpike traffic by taking I-95 through Philadelphia - once we managed to get out of town. The morning was peppered with phone calls from the answering service from patients who didn't realize the office would be closed on Friday and Saturday, which put me behind schedule on packing. Then we finally got on the road and were just pulling onto Route 1 when another call with four more messages came in. Those got squared away while we were getting lunch at Wendy's (still in Princeton, an hour after leaving home).

Then Thea needed a bathroom break so I found the Dunkin Donuts in NE Philadelphia near where I first worked after nursing school, and she was in a graffiti-covered bathroom with an electronic lock, taking her sweet time doing her business. And the bathroom has a timer on the light, so it cut out, leaving her a little wigged out. I managed to get a cup of coffee to keep me going. Meanwhile, Micah was passed out in his car seat so I'm trying to keep an eye on him and on the bathroom.

The answering service conveniently rang again as we were getting close to the Chesapeake House rest area on I-95, so we made another stop and took another bathroom and snack break.

We made it to Oma's by dinner time - which wasn't bad considering how late we started out and all the stops. Micah sounded the "I have to POO-OOOOO-OOOP" alarm as we were on Route 50, necessitating another stop at the McDonald's on Route 301. False alarm. Both kids are becoming fans of automatic toilets and sinks, which is starting to make me wonder do they ask for a stop out of necessity or boredom.

We celebrated the Fourth by using the GPS to got to the German Deli in Virginia and then having lunch at Panera's. Hard salami. Kinderschokolade. German pickles. Good stuff.

Thea and I dropped off Oma and Micah and then went to Target. I picked up an inflatable pool, which turned out to be 81 inches in diameter, which cupholders in the rim and an inflatable bench in the pool. Much bigger than I had originally thought, and it completely freaked my mother out as the electric pump inflated it (in the living room). The kids spent the afternoon splashing around, and then went into the bathtub to get warmed up before dinner.

Thea was less than thrilled with the idea of fireworks, and Micah was toast, so we skipped them. And despite it not being a total flag-waving, patriotic, red-white-and-blue sort of day, it was fun.

Sunday we got going with an agenda of going back to Target to return an item I bought the day before, got to Safeway to get flower and go to the ATM and then head to Watkins Regional Park for train rides and stop at the cemetery on the way home. We made a first stop at my brother's so Mom could drop off something, and then from the back seat Micah was yapping, "I want to see W-i-l-l-i, I want to see Un-kah Kah-rul," so I let him out of the car. And from there he went in and started to play with his cousin and the Thomas trains, then Thea got interested in the trains, and so we hung out there for a bit.

The plans got re-worked so that we all went to lunch at Ledo's together, after we made a quick stop at the ATM and a run throuh Target (thank you, Aunt Shannon for telling us about Thomas the Tank Engine underwear!). Karl introduced my daughter to those machines that you put quarters into and then try to grab a toy or stuffed animal. She didn't quite figure it out, but Micah benefitted from Karl's and Willi's success and we have yet another bear joining the flock. Yippee. . . .not.

By the time we got back to Mom's it was time to load the car and hit the road. Micah checked out and was fast asleep by the time we got to Upper Marlboro and the turn for the park. Thea voted for stopping and waking Micah up, so we went to Watkins Park and bought tickets for the train. Micah was in heaven - we took two rides and then went on the Carousel, then back for one more train ride.

Our pit stop at the park cost us in terms of time, so we didn't get back to Princeton until a little after 10 pm - both kids were awake until the last few miles.

And despite the late night, we were right back into the routine Monday: school van coming at 7:45, Thea going to camp, and me going to work. . . .

Buh-BYE

. . . .for a few days.

We're going to Maryland tomorrow until Sunday. Needing a below the Mason-Dixon Line fix since it's been almost two months. Micah is thoroughly psyched because Oma has found Mavis -one of the Thomas the Tank Engine trains that he has obsessed over for months. Oma rocks.

And while the weekend hasn't even really started, I'm already dreading Monday. No Friday office hours, no Saturday hours, thanks to the Fourth of July holiday. Two providers out (one returns Wednesday). Monday will be ugly, ugly, ugly at work.

But first, Maryland.

Blogoversary

What a horrible addition to the ever-evolving English language. July 1st marks the day that I've been blogging for two years, starting a few days before we left for China to meet Micah. It started as pure avoidance of the chore of packing up three suitcase and two carry-ons for four people.

Once upon a time, in the Land Before Blogs, I tried to write a letter to Thea once a month on or around the 13th of each month, and I did fairly well for about two years. It's stashed someone on one of the computers, along with all the emails that I sent from our first trip to China. Between 2004 and 2007, along came blogs, and here we are.

It was an uneventful, eventful day. Micah went back to school, survived his transition to Miss Margie's classroom - and his BAHA is back from its vacation/spa treatment in Colorado. The audiologist at school went to put it back on his band, but we'd taken out the mounting piece (they're expensive, and if he tugged off the BAHA it could go flying, never to be seen again.)

Only one call so far, I'm on call again - with the one provider out on family leave and one on vacation, the grace period that usually comes after a weekend on call is not in the cards.

After dinner the kids and I went to fill up my car's gas tank, and while we were waiting at the gas station, we saw a double rainbow. We could actually see the arc going up into the clouds and then down again. It was pretty cool - but unfortunately if I would have tried to photograph it, the rainbow would have appeared behind all the powerlines that run along Route 1. Once the car was happy, we went into town to Thomas Sweets for ice cream - and along the way there were people out for walks who were pausing to look at the rainbow.

Thea had chocolate ice cream, so Micah had what she had, until it went onto the ground. Thea nearly died (she was promised any that Micah didn't eat and he quickly lost interest). They ran around the grounds of an old school building is next to the ice cream parlor, which provided the opportunity for them to be snacked on by mosquitoes - both had at least two or three welts, so it was Benadryl and hydrocortisone cream all around after their showers. Somehow the bugs don't seem to like old, grumpy B+ blood, so I was unscathed.

I'm on a new medication for pain, new as in new to the market - and one I wouldn't have chosen mostly because I had to endure months of him hyping the as-yet-unreleased medication without really being able to say when it would actually be on the market. It helped without knocking me out, the knee still hurt a bit, but I was moving better and in a better mood because of it.

Happy Birthday, dear Blog, you're probably better and cheaper than a therapist.