Games the School District Plays. . .

I posted on Tuesday that the school district called on the absolute last possible day before it would be out of compliance to schedule Micah's evaluation. The message was from Sharon and she left her phone number/extension and instructed me to call back and confirm that her message was received.

And so as not to appear too eager, I waited until Thursday and called. Amazingly, I had the phone number in my head and was sitting at my desk with a semi-idle minute so I dialed.

She picked up promptly, I told her I was calling to confirm the date and time that she had provided for Micah's CST evaluation.

Insert sounds of me twiddling my thumbs while being placed on hold.

And then she came back on the line and said, "Oh, but you haven't turned in the form giving permission for the evaluation."

Huh????? My jaw dropped. The form that Micah and I dropped off at 1:15 pm on October 29, 2008, handed to the receptionist (whose name I noted on my copy of the form with the date and time.)

Once the shock abated. I recapped that SHE had called ME to schedule the evaluation, so that must mean that the school is in possession of the signed form.

Insert more sounds of me twiddling thumbs while being put on hold, yet again.

Then she came back on the line and confirmed the appointment.

This is an example of a person I am supposed to entrust with the care of my child.

Fat freaking chance.

Cheap Decorating Thrills

I' ve been redecorating the blog. It's cheaper than re-doing a house (though the house needs it more desperately).

Since reader comments have been few and far between, and http://www.blogpatrol.com counter didn't give me a precise lock on who is reading this, with the exception of my husband whose email address shows up on the activity report while everyone else remains anonymous, I put the Feedjit map as one of the widgets. Now I can guess, based on location, who is out there.

The Baltimore flag is my cousin, but I knew that already from the comment she left (and I wish she'd email me the name of her blog. Hint, hint.) Illinois is Steve's brother. Somehow the stupid Feedjit thing calls our home location Belle Mead instead of Princeton. Texas is likely my best friend since freshman year of high school.

King of Prussia is a mystery. I hope its not someone from our former adoption agency because that would be too weird and nosey.

California is also a question mark, though I think that might be a mom who is a member of one of the atresia/microtia groups on Yahoo! that I belong to.

It feels a bit like cyber-stalking, but it doesn't cost a dime so and it keeps me occupied - otherwise I'd be changing the font colors sixteen times a day trying to find the palette that goes best with the background.

Not much else is new. I clipped a Land-o-Lakes Best Sugar Cookie recipe, then actually read it. Two tablespoons of orange juice is part of the flavoring. What foulness! Blech, blech, and double blech. Into the recycling it went. I was looking for a good recipe to make cookies with the kids since I discovered my cookie cutters in an obscure corner of one of the kitchen cabinets.

Wednesday Triptych

Good news on the answering machine: Micah's service coordinator at Early Intervention called today. The application for the second BAHA has been mailed. It gets sent in to "the State" whoever or whatever that is.

Please let the bean-counting, penny-pinching faceless bureaucrat be in a good mood when the envelope arrives in his or her in-box. Light candles, sacrifice chickens, make offerings to the deity of your choice, keep a good thought, Mama wants a BAHA approval in time for Christmas.

And if approved, I then want JFK to order it quickly, Cochlear to send it via overnight express (the company charges enough for the damn thing, it can spring for FedEx, dammit.)

And I want our audiologist not to be taking any time off if and when the approval comes through so she can order it and get it on Micah ASAP.

I know I want a lot, but Micah deserves it.

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Meanwhile back at the ranch, my Kodak Easyshare printer is only printing half of the pictures and the help page on Kodak's web site and http://www.fixya.com/ were more or less useless. Someone put in the suggestion to unplug it for awhile, as if that is somehow a magic bullet. Duh, tried that one myself before even going on-line to look for answers or suggestions. May that twit's email inbox be deluged with Viagra-by-mail and penis enhancement spam forevermore.

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After group at Summit School today, Micah and I went to visit Marleen and Aliya. Marleen and Pete were in our first adoption travel group, and their daughter Kitty is a few weeks younger than Thea. Pete just came back from Kyrgystan with Aliya who is now seven months old.

Micah was quite taken with Marleen, behaved well around baby Aliya and was quite intimidated by Boomer and Sweet Pea, the two English setters. Who as dogs go are total pussycats - they napped in the sunroom while Micah played with their dog toys. The baby is adorable and just happy to crawl and roll around the floor amusing herself. When I said it was time for us to leave, Micah pulled his "almost all done" routine and then patted Marleen on her thigh for emphasis. He managed to scam several stuffed animals from her, so it was an all around good afternoon for him, even though he got shorted on nap time.

One More Hoop. . . .

. . . . yesterday the audiologist at JFK called. She is providing her part of the paperwork that will result in Micah's second BAHA, if all goes well and the approval process doesn't go beyond March 1, 2009 when Early Intervention washes its hands of us. And she needs a copy of the "Medically Cleared to Wear Hearing Aids" prescription from Dr. Choe. The one that I sent to our service coordinator more than a week ago. Don't these people talk much less share information?Sheesh.

Fortunately I am extremely neurotic about that sort of thing and I still have the originals as well as copies so I could fax it off this morning. And I've already called JFK to confirm that the fax arrived (missing the cover memo, but at least the important stuff made it.)

I am hoping that Santa Claus is going to bring us a second BAHA since it's about the only thing I want for Christmas, but I don't know if my patience is going to hold out, especially if any more roadblocks are tossed at me.

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And today the school district called (on day #19.5 of the 20 calendar days it had to respond) and left a message on our voice mail to schedule Micah's evaluation. December 18th at 10:30 am. I am wondering if the Child Study Team is hoping I'll say 'no' since I think they were told I work Tuesdays and Thursdays, and it's one week before Christmas.

Fat freaking chance, let the games begin.

At least I'll have something to talk about at group tomorrow. . . .

Chinatown & the Wanamaker's Pipe Organ

We were the first arrivals at the Green Land Tea House, Thea and I. Surprisingly, neither lightning nor a meteor struck the place. Thea and I tried out pork dumplings, $0.70 each, and a I tried a peanut sticky rice ball. The dumpling was ok, though the bread coating was a little on the greasy side, and the sticky rice ball is probably an acquired taste. I liked the ground peanut filling and the coconut coating, but the sticky rice was exactly as its name described. Glutenous, adhesive-like, bland. The good news we got from the home while at the bakery was that Micah had decided to go pee on the potty.


The Shanghai Bazaar and New China Bookstore was the next stop, but Thea and I were in more of a looking than a buying mode. We got a wooden dog pull-toy for Micah, now named Pee-Pee Puppy. It was interesting, but it doesn't hold a candle to A Gift from China in GuangZhou.


Next we went to hear the noon concert of the pipe organ, which is impressive for its size and the number of pipes it has. While waiting for the concert to end so that we could tour the console area, we went down to the first floor where Macy's has a red mail box for letters to Santa. I saw a commercial that I only half paid attention to that said that for every letter to Santa, Macy's would make a contribution to a charity (which one I don't remember) up to one million dollars. Thea and her friend Kalani wrote notes. Thea couldn't think of anything to put on her list, so she wrote out "Thank you for all the presents you've brought me."

Then we went to Ocean Harbor, a dim sum restaurant on Race Street. Very popular place from the lines coming out the door. Carts zipping around with the various offerings. Even chicken feet. From all the reading I've done about Chinese cooking, the best part, most flavorful part doesn't come from the breast, but 40+ years of conditioning with Perdue under the plastic wrap is hard to break down. And I've seen the places those chicken feet walk, and most of them are woefully overdue for a poultry pedicure. I passed, I am a culinary coward and quite happy in that role. Thea and I had shrimp, which comes with all its bits still there, and if one is doing it the proper way, one sucks out the head. I'm not a shrimp head sucker, either.

I may need to come back and read the bit about the note from Santa after awhile, because the same child who wrote that earlier today is being a major pain in the rear this evening. The needle on my Whine-o-Meter is off the charts, and most of the noise is coming from the older one. (Micah does whine at times, but he usually will try whacking something or someone as his first approach.)

Grey Saturday

Thea and I are off to Chinatown in Philadelphia with a group from her school. We're going to a traditional Taiwanese tea house, the Shanghai Bazaar, the pipe organ concert at Wanamaker's (I lived in Philly when it was still Wanamaker's and it will forever be that to me), and then Ocean Harbor for lunch.

Micah is getting a Daddy day, which includes a visit to Grandma, as possibly a trip to Turtleback Zoo to ride the train. Yesterday Micah and I had an all-train, all-morning experience. His speech therapist was willing to go with his agenda of playing with his Thomas the Tank Engine trains and tracks, then we went to the Princeton NJT station and rode the Dinky round trip to Princeton Junction. While idling on the track, waiting for our return trip, Micah saw a double-decker train go through the Princeton Junction station, so he has upgraded his training goals to "Ride, big, big train." He probably will get to ride a train in a few months, to New York City, for his first CT scan prior to his surgery. Probably not quite how he's imagining it will be.

Stay dry!

Working Wednesday

Today I had three free minutes while Micah slept in his pack-n-play in my office so I called our Service Coordinator at Early Intervention. Monday late afternoon I faxed off Dr. Choe's letter and hearing aid Rx with our Aetna ID card to her. Today SC spoke with the audiologist at JFK regarding the cost estimate and her report needed for the BAHA #2 application, and audiologist is sending in her paperowork to the SC and once those are received, the application moves forward to the next step. It just needs to finish that next step soon, soon, soon - time is ticking away and that third birthday is getting closer and closer.

Since it was nagging time, I also put in a call to the Social Worker to see if the receptionist had delivered the evaluation permission form two weeks ago. Left a message on her voice mail, and no message on our answering machine when we got home today. No return phone call, big fat surprise there. Not.

I can honestly say I'd have rather driven to New Providence and attended group today, working half-day but putting in a full day's worth of time sucks. Wednesdays Micah's sitter can only take him through lunch time due to the number of kids she has, the number of sleeping areas for naps and cribs for them to sleep in so at 12:30 pm or so I have to scoot down the road, pick up Micah and then either go back to work or go home (usually to work on charts via the computer).

Our home computer's mouse, which as taken more hits than Muhammad Ali from being dropped or knocked onto the kitchen floor, started acting a little punch drunk last night. It was taking six clicks or more to register a check mark in the boxes on the forms used for patient charts - and since the forms are all checklists with some typing thrown in for good measure, it took me almost three hours to complete about twelve charts. So today I planned to turn off the overhead light in my office, sit at my desk and work while Micah (who naps well for his sitter and who is usually wiped out by 12:45 pm or so) slept.

"NO NAP MOMMY. No, thank you." Silly me. He had things to do. He has to check in with his medical assistant friends and scam some stickers. He had to get some water and ice and sit at the lunch room table hanging out with the last few people who were having lunch. He wanted to blow up a few latex gloves into balloons.

He. Did. Not. Want. To. Nap.

Fortunately I had stuffed animals and wooden with us so Micah was in the pack-n-play with his toys and relatively content for awhile. It took two tries of rocking him on my lap and a few verses of "The Wheels on Micah's Car (Go 'Round and 'Round)" before I could drop him in the crib and really get cracking on my laptop. I am hopeful that having an office at the end of the hall prevented most of my co-workers from hearing my total lack of a singing voice.

The nice thing about having Micah napping in my office is that almost no one came knocking on the door to interrupt me so I got all of my charts and most of my correspondence done. I did bring home a stack of charts to strip for scanning tonight. Once I get more than ten on my desk I get the itch to make them go away, and preparing them for the file clerks is the only way to do it. It's tedium is only broken by the occasional paper cut.

Tonight Thea and I finished The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, so we'll be picking out at new chapter book. She also read Duck on a Bike to me which was sent in her backpack by her English teacher. When we got to the end of Edward Tulane, Thea said maybe we could put it away for a bit and then start to read it again, so I think that means she liked it. It's a great book, and I really loved the story, too. I think I might choose something lighter for our next chapter book: Ruby Lu, Brave and True might be good. I think there's a part in it where the main character tries to sell her little brother.

Top Chef: New York started tonight. I think I am growing bored with it. I need to find some new shows or remember to pick up stuff from the On Demand menu.