Imagination Movers

 

 Sunday at Hershey Park 

I'm trying to get a better picture, but in it's tiny form what you're seeing is Micah in the arms of Mover Rich, who was his favorite (as of yesterday, that is), Thea is between Mover Dave and Nadia.  We went to Hershey Park for the Imagination Movers concert, arriving in time to get seats up at the top of the amphitheatre.

 After the show we went on a ride on the cable cars, which Thea loved after overcoming her fear.  Thea, Micah and I went on a second trip across the park; Steve passed since he wasn't to thrilled with the first trip.

While we were up in the air, Steve met up with Nadia and Emad, the Skyview cable cars are near the access to the amphitheater.  It was a lucky coincidence for us - Thea and I made yet another trip on the Skyview with Nadia.  Meanwhile the guys took Micah off for a train ride.

Micah and Thea went off on yet another ride on the Skyview (when Thea overcomes a fear, she overcomes it but good) with Emad and Nadia and I went on the Comet.  My first roller coaster ride in at least ten years or more.  Probably more.  I think I left a kidney on the tracks after the first drop, a lobe or two of my lungs on the first curve all the while giving my vocal cords got a work out.  And it will take ten or more years and a good dose of senility to get back on another coaster.

Nadia's sister Norah was at the second concert with her friends so we went back to the amphitheater to hang out for the photo-op, which is where the picture came from.  Emad and Nadia and the kids were the first in line.  While I was taking Thea to the restroom, the concert-goers returned, and Micah was in the thick of a girl posse, which means that he was practically unaware of the existence of his parents or sister.

Then after the concert was over and the amphitheater emptied out, the Movers came out, and you see the result above.  Micah was thrilled to have gotten picked up by his favorite Mover, Rich - and he is firmly convinced that when we move to the new house, the Movers will be the ones coming to help us pack and transport our furniture and boxes.  Reality will be quite a shock . . . .

Errands for Tuesday

9:00 am appointment at the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District office to register Thea for Grade 2 and to start the process of getting Micah into the integrated preschool program.  Still have hand cramp from completing all the paperwork and forms x 2.

Journey to the Verizon Wireless store to dump AT&T.  The contract on my phone is up as of about two weeks ago; I got the phone Mother's Day weekend 2008 when my phone died while I was on call, so I made a desperation purchase that locked in AT&T for the past two years.  Steve has hated the service from AT&T for ages, back in November I signed up with Verizon to get a mobile broadband device for my laptop so I could stop trekking to Borders for free WiFi while visiting my mother.  (Steve last updated his phone in 2007 just after we returned from China and the analog phones were going the way of the dinosaur; we're not the types who go out and buy the latest and greatest gadget.)  If I had to make the switch on the weekend, when the store is probably four or five times as busy, I would have thrown in the towel.  Today, almost no one was in the store and I had the total time and attention of a very nice woman named Leslie and a nice techno-geek named Carmelo both of whom had the patience of saints. And other than the eventual bill, it was fairly painless which is more than I can say for any of my interactions with the CellularOne / Cingular / AT&T store over the past 10+ years.  H-u-g-e sense of accomplishment checking that off the to-do list.  Whistle a chorus of 'Ding-Dong the Witch Is Dead'.

Went to lunch with Steve at Chevy's and discovered that places that serve salsa are not the best for completing forms for summer camp programs and signing legal documents for the Princeton University mortgage office.

Went grocery shopping.  Finished by 1:59 pm, with husband betting against me that I would not be done by 2 pm (had to give up Dunkin Donuts coffee to accomplish this feat.)

Dropped off registration forms at Princeton Friends School for two weeks of summer camp for Micah and Thea; very nice lady reviewing the forms.

Dropped off registration form for the Princeton YWCA camp for Thea.

Went to Forest Jewelers to get Steve's watch battery replaced.  When it died, he took the watch - a very nice one that I bought him in 2001 after our engagement and after looking for a watch to meet his specifications of being very thin (or flat) - to one of those stands in the mall.   And then wondered why the battery died not too long after. . . .

Met Micah's school van, to find that he can be pleased (to see me) and disappointed (that Tesh wasn't there to meet him) within the same nanosecond.

Micah and I were playing cards today after he got home and he spread out the cards to play a matching game, and as I went to pick two cards, Micah says, "No! Wait!  Let me tell you the directions first"  with the tone and inflection that made me hear either his teacher or his speech therapist.  I think he's heard that phrase a few times.

Meanwhile back at the real estate agents' and attorneys' offices, communication from the Demon Spawn Home Buyer from Hell indicates the sale of our house might actually go through, so we are once again closed to tourists.  (And the crowd says "Amen!")

Last Week - Post-Op Update

Micah's IEP meeting was last Wednesday.  The case worker from our school district will be writing a new IEP to make recommendations for the new school district and Micah's transition to an integrated preschool program that includes receiving two 30 minute sessions with speech, one occupational therapy session, and two 60 minute sessions of group speech therapy per week as well as services and consultation from a TOD (teacher of the deaf).  Now it will be up to the new school district to agree with all of that.

The means that Micah is pretty much up to par for his age as far as speech goes.  He still needs to work on social skills like waiting for his turn, learning not to interrupt, joining an existing conversation (versus trying to change the topic to whatever his agenda is) - if there was a magic formula for making that happen, I would sell one of Steve's kidneys on eBay for it as long as the formula for getting Micah to sit in his chair during dinner were also part of the deal.

During the time at Micah's school I also met with the audiologist who has been testing Micah with and without his BAHA to see what is going to work best for him in a school setting.  She had tested him three times and had just gotten his second BAHA sent in so she could test him without amplification, with one and then with two BAHAs - and I think she will also be testing him with an FM system.

What has emerged thus far from the testing is that the left ear is doing better than the right.  In March we had started Micah on Sudafed because Dr. Choe saw fluid behind the right ear drum.  This resolved with the Sudafed, so it was stopped shortly after surgery.

Copies of Micah's audiograms were given so that I could take them to Dr. Choe for our appointment that afternoon.  The new left ear is still looking great, but he restarted Micah on Claritin and Sudafed to get rid of the fluid behind the ear drum.  And at $17 per box for ten chewable tablets chez Target, it had better do what it is supposed to do.  And we're back to putting Tobradex drops in Micah's right ear canal at bedtime.

Audiological testing can restart after Micah has been on the antihistamine/decongestant for a week.

Next ENT appointment is June 9.  The meeting with the new school district is May 25.  Let's just hope that we're actually going to be moving at that point, but that's another post entirely.

Phone Call from Mom

9:06 pm.  Phone rings.  I am sitting on the bed, wondering when the allergy medication is going to kick in and un-stuff my head.  Caller ID shows the call is from one of my mother's neighbors.  Automatic knot in stomach.  It's way past my mother's bed time, she usually rolls up the sidewalk and battens down the hatches early.

Me:  Hello?

Caller:  Steve?

Me:  No, Mommy, it's me, I'm still a little stuffy.

Mom:  Can you look up a phone number for a shuttle service from BWI airport for Joy?

Me (internal monologue): Hello to you, too.

Me:  Sure, let me pick up my laptop.

Mom  (aside to her friends, not quite a stage whisper):  See, I told you, she's always on that damn computer.

Me:  I'm looking, and I can hear you. . . .

Anyway, one quick jaunt through Google and I found Super Shuttle and the phone number for her.  Problem solved, thank you, damn computer.

I'm still waiting for the allergy medication to kick in AND also waiting to get by the one or two years of my life back from the phone call. 

(Mom was hanging with her peeps after going out to a performance of the Port Tobacco Players. )

Alumni Day at Penn

 

Today was Alumni Day at Penn.  I think that Thea had been to at least four out of the last five; I've been taking her since the days when she still was in her stroller.  It's much more fun now:  she brought her Nintendo DS so attending the lecture on autism was no problem, she loves the parade part and this year there was fried chicken on the buffet table.  All in all a good day, though the Bookstore was a bit overrun with customers and by the time we were on our way back to College Green for the obligatory visit to The Button, Thea claimed to be too tired so we headed back to the car.

Thea picked a Penn Nursing Science Haiti Now t-shirt which was being sold to raise funds to help rebuild a school of nursing in Haiti - good choice of souvenir.  She's wearing it as her night shirt, and I'm still sort of in shock that an adult/small t-shirt isn't all that big on her.

I wish I could attend the School of Nursing's commencement.  Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools, is the speaker.  Wow.  I would need to dig out the programs from my 1997 and 1998 graduation ceremonies to see who spoke, but if it would have been someone like Mortenson, it would go down as one of the more memorable events in my life.   3 pm Monday at the Kimmel Center, I hope someone does a webcast.

Wednesday

At 10:30 am I've got to be at Micah's school for his IEP review.  This will give us a new document to take to the new school district so that the new district can write its own IEP, which I hope will include itinerant TOD and/or speech therapy services in its plans for preschool for him.  We'll see.  I just hope that our current district finalizes the document before our appointment to register the kids in the new district.

Meanwhile the pediatric audiologist at Micah's school has been testing him, both with and without the BAHAs.  Since she's an educational audiologist, what she says about Micah's ability to hear and function in a classroom setting will have more weight that the ENT's audiologist telling us that he is hearing well.

Then we have an another appointment with Dr. Choe at 2:40 pm to recheck the new left ear, which should throw us out onto the Turnpike right around the beginnings of rush hour.

Mothers Day, Chez Us

 Woke up.

Called my mother, squeaked with her for a few minutes.  My voice is down to an annoying rasp since yesterday afternoon.  Fortunately the USPS cooperated and she got the cards and photos I sent in Saturday's mail.  I didn't mention that these were the cards that I purchased for Mothers Day 2009 and misplaced.  They resurfaced around Christmas; I had to use up all the remaining $0.02 stamps I had because postage went up and there were enough photos in each to require extra postage.

Breakfast x 3:  Thea wants steamed eggs, Steve gets French toast and Micah wants cereal and bread with cream cheese and jelly.

Make beds x 3, including putting on the mattress cover on Thea's bed which was in the wash and checking to see if she wants the polka dotted fitted sheet or the pink sheet.  (Polka dotted won).

Put away laundry x 3. Go through Micah's t-shirts and cull out a few that are starting to look a little small.

Do a little picking up of Micah's trucks (the kid has way too many) and stuffed animals (ditto), and they never seem to be in the bins, preferring to scatter themselves over the floor.

Lunch at Tiger Noodles with Thea.

Grocery shopping with Thea.

New York Times Crossword.  Way too easy this week, would rather get stuck and be cussing out the crossword editor.  Finished before dinner.

Clean out the science fair projects from the refrigerator while searching for something to make for dinner.

Make dinner.

Go to bed.  Dream of a spa day or even just a manicure/pedicure.

The End.

What your children think. . . .Miss Karen's Class - May 2010

What is your Mommy's name?
Garett: I don't know what's her name.  Do you know?
Angelina:  Kathy.
Maria:  Camilia
Tom:  Ima
Micah:  Her last name is G****.  Her first name is L****.
Ashley:  Donna
Nicole:  My mommy's name is Tammy.
Olyvia:  Jodi
Quintin:  My mommy's name is Mommy.  I just call her Mommy.

How old is she?
Garett:   She did ask me how old she was.  100?  20?
Angelina:   25
Maria:     I don't know.  17.
Tom:   18
Micah:   17.
Ashley:    I don't know.  25.
Nicole:    18
Olyvia:   My mom is 8.  Mommy is like the same age as Nicki.
Quintin:   27

What is her favorite color?
Garett:  Umm, purple and pink
Angelina:    My mom's favorite color is pink.
Maria:   All of them
Tom:   Red
Micah:   Purple like me.  I love purple too.
Ashley:    Purple and pink.
Nicole:   Green
Olyvia:   Blue
Quintin:   White

When is her birthday?
Garett:   I don't know but it's May
Angelina:   My mom's birthday is February 20.  I know that because her birthday passed.  We gave her perfume.
Maria:  In March 17.
Tom:   In the cold winter.  26.
Micah:    In April 18.
Ashley:   Chuck E. Cheese.  I don't know.
Nicole:   In April 26.
Olyvia:  April.  My mom's birthday was past.
Quintin:   September.


What is your favorite thing to do with her?
Garett:  Go to the zoo with my mom.
Angelina:   Give hugs and kisses.
Maria:  Play matching game.
Tom:   Drink coffee with her.
Micah:   I like to play with her.
Ashley:  Play with the kitchen.
Nicole:  Play house.
Olyvia:  Go to Chuck E. Cheese and play lots a game.
Quintin:   Nothing.  I like to paint with Mommy.

What is your favorite dinner that Mommy makes?
Garett:  Spaghetti.
Angelina:   Stuffing.  I love stuffing.  It's good.
Maria:  Spaghetti.
Tom:    Spaghetti and meatin.  It's a different kind of food.  It chicken and it look different.
Micah:   Rice and cous-cous.
Ashley:    Macaroni and cheese.  My mommy makes eggs.
Nicole:   Rice and chicken.
Olyvia:   Fried chicken.
Quintin: Chili.

What color is your Mommy's hair?
Garett:   Brown.  Light brown.
Angelina:   Dark brown.  I see it every day because here hair is so long.
Maria:  Brown.
Tom:    Yellow.
Micah:    Black.  It's a little bit brown and a little bit black.
Ashley:   Brown.
Nicole:   Brown.
Olyvia:   Brown and a little white.
Quintin:  Brown.


What color are her eyes?
Garett:  Green, and me and my brother and my daddy are blue.
Angelina:   Brown.
Maria:   Yellow.
Tom:   Blue.  I like yours.
Micah:   Black.
Ashley:    Brown.
Nicole:    Green.
Olyvia:   Blue
Quintin:  Brown

What is her favorite thing to do?
Garett:  She likes to clean dirty things off our clothes.
Angelina:   Watch TV and just cook too and watch the baby.
Maria:   My mom favorite thing to do is play.
Tom:   She play with me.
Micah:   To work,  And sleep.
Ashley:   She like to play in the kitchen.  I say "Mommy, come here." And she say, " No, I'm eat dinner first."
Nicole:  She likes to pick flowers and she likes to pick strawberries.
Olyvia: She likes to go to the paint room and get a tattoo.
Quintin:  Eat lunch and then she work on her computer and then she ate snack and then she ate dinner and then she drink water and then that's it.

What does she do while you are at school/when she's at work?
Garett:   She doesn't go to work.  She stays home and watch the dog and make sure she doesn't pee or poop in the house.
Angelina:    She gets money by work.  She have to wait for a check.  When she has a check we will move.
Maria:   She went at work  She need to buy the money.
Tom:   She waiting at home for a while.
Micah:   Mommy works.  She just is working.  She plays on her computer.  She locks the door 'cause no one can come in.
Ashley:    Mommy work at home.  She call the phone with Daddy and she write.
Nicole:   She does sign language in the night.  She was eating dinner.
Olyvia:   Make dinner and hot chocolate.  She makes good hot chocolate.  It's yummy.
Quintin:   Mommy go to work.  She eating at work.

Does your Mommy have any brothers or sisters? 
Garett:   She has only sisters.
Angelina:   Aunt Shannon is her sister.  Aunt Sherry.  Her brother is Uncle Sean and Uncle Frannie - two brothers and two sister.
Maria:   No.
Tom:   Mommy have a brother.  Daniel.
Micah:    No, she used to have them.
Ashley:   Yes, two.  One brother and one sister.  Lexi and Matty.
Nicole:  Yes, many people.
Olyvia:  My mom has lots of sister.
Quintin:  Mommy don't have brother or sister.  Her daughter name is Nneka and I'm my mom's son.

Does Mommy have friends?  What does she do with them?
Garett:   Yeah, only one, but I don't know her name.  She slept at her friend's house but I don't know where she was.
Angelina:   Yes, she talk to them.
Maria:  Yes.  She talk.
Tom:   Yup.  Friend name is Ben.
Micah:   Nope.  Only me and Thea.
Ashley:   Yes.  She talkin and she drinkin.
Nicole:  Yes.  She talk on the phone.
Olyvia:  Yeah.  My Mom drink and eat at the same time and talk with her friends.
Quintin:  No, no friends.  My dad has friends.

Why do you love your Mommy?
Garett:    Because she take me everywhere.  I love her.  Turtleback Zoo, buy things.
Angelina:  Because my mom take me to Toys-R-Us.
Maria:    Because she pick me up and went to the park with me.
Tom:   Because she make food.
Micah:   Cause I don't know.  She's soft.
Ashley:   Because I like Mommy stay in the school.
Nicole:   Because she wants a kiss.
Olyvia:  'Cause she bring me to the store.
Quintin:  Because I gonna kiss her cheek.

OK - he knows my full name, he's forgotten my birthday (around the time of his birthday he would have me run through the calendar of everyone's birthday (those that I could remember)), and he knows not to follow me into the exam rooms at work, though he thinks I'm playing on my computer in there since I carry a laptop instead of a paper medical chart, and he's clueless that the person he refers to as Uncle Karl is my brother.  Not quite Phi Beta Kappa quite yet, but the boy shows promise.


I can't wait to see how the Fathers' Day version of this turns out. Stay tuned.

Photos by Tesh Kouretas, 2010. 

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY!

In Maryland. . . .

. . .it's 9:05 am and the boy is still sleeping.  The older one is happily capturing Pokemon with her Nintendo DS, and I'm watching CBS Sunday Morning with my mother.

Yesterday we made our semi-annual pilgrimage to the National Lutheran Home for its Spring Festival.  It's lost much of the 'wow' factor that it had when I was a child; the event was formerly held on a Friday and my mother would parole me from school for the afternoon.

When we started going back to the Spring and Fall Festivals, there were still members of St. Peter's, the church I grew up in, living at the home.  Most have since died, and those that volunteered have gotten older and given over their responsibilities to others.  Not to mention that back in the 1980s, while we were living in Illinois, the Home moved from 18th and Douglas Streets in Northeast DC out to Rockville, Maryland.  Not much of the old, familiar other than the photographs of the original Home on one of the walls.

Now we got to see friends from Lewisdale who living in the Independent Living homes surrounding the Home, we go in memory of my grandmother who used to volunteer for years in the Stamp Room.  She would bring home bags filled with the corners of envelopes in them, soak the stamps off, put them between those sheets of newspapers to dry which she put under the pads on her dining room table to keep them flat.  It was a great way for a kid (me) to start a stamp collection.

Now the tradition is that Thea is given a budget of $5 (and Micah got $2) to spend as she likes.  Yesterday, she bought a sunflower pin for me ($0.25), because she said as she presented it to me "you are always buying things and doing things for us", she spent another $0.25 on an X-Men hand-held video game, and $2 on a used Othello game (ages 8+, she's been playing it since kindergarten).  Then as we were at the Ladies' Auxillary's table, petting Roxie one of the volunteer's dog,  Thea opened her purse and took out a dollar and made a donation to the Auxillary.  The volunteer wrote out a receipt for Thea because she was impressed.  Thea was impressed with the receipt and over the fuss that was made over her.

Meanwhile, Micah practiced deficit spending by finding one of our friend Eleanor's doll blankets with a puppy wrapped in it, so he handed over his $2, helped by another $10 from me.  ("But I L-O-V-E him, Mommy" and since he was being good at keeping his hands off to himself, how could I resist when its for a good cause?)  He scammed another Beanie Baby dog (in a hideous shade of aqua) from his Oma in the Grandma's Attic section.

Then after lunch at the Home comes the best part of the afternoon, we go to the Eleanor's and I buy quilts. This time I needed enough doll quilts for Micah's class, because next week is Q-week at his school and two nap quilts for gifts.  At school it is Q is for Quail week starting on Monday.  These children stand as much chance of seeing a real quail as I do of waking up skinny tomorrow morning, so to exert my influence that Q is for QUILT, dammit.  Screw the quails.

On the way home from Rockville, Micah fell asleep as we got on the Beltway, which revved him up enough so that we unloaded the car, switched from sandals to sneakers and went to Oma's Special Park (which is the kids' name for Laurel Springs Park in LaPlata).  I love that they are now at an age when I can say "go, run, just check in every now and then" and then I park myself on a bench to thumb through the Post's Sunday Magazine section.

They ran like maniacs for almost an hour, making friends with various children and drawing them into their games.  And after turning themselves into sweaty, panting messes, they were more than happy to go back to Oma's.

We had take-out from Hunan Star III.  Micah came with me to pick up the order.  Micah was his usually charming self, so the lady at the counter gave him a flower fan, the kind used to decorate drinks.  The best part was that one of the ladies working at the restaurant who is talking to Micah, says to me, "He is Chinese?"

Do you think?  Really?

But I politely said, "Yes."  Rather than try to pronounce Jinzhou, I said we traveled to Wuhan.  And then the woman said, "Yes, I knew he is Chinese."  Genius!  She is the Queen of the Amateur Anthropologists!  The whole world can look at Micah within about a nanosecond or so know that at sometime in this child's past there were family members who came from China.

Thea was so tired, she started falling asleep while waiting for Micah to finish his bath, so I gave her a pass on showering until Sunday morning.