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In the last school year Jaden did not start at the town pre-K until February or so, after an amicable battle with the administration over whether or not he should be enrolled once early intervention stopped (age 3). This year since Jaden started pre-K when the school year began, and with that we have had a whole host of new experiences to manage.

For one, we are the recipients of the school fundraiser catalog to which we have successfully distributed amongst friends and family. That is due next week (so if you want the link to peruse the catalog to see if you want to place an order just let us know – LOL).

We have received the book club sales flyers, which I sent in this morning with our order. We will now split the order between Jaden’s two schools since we get the same flyer from the pre-K and his afternoon pre-school.  I will admit it took me over an hour yesterday to figure out what to order, since we already have more books than the local library. But we want to do our part to support both schools, and every little bit helps.

As I write this I realize I need to come up with a name for the two schools to keep them straight, both in my mind and in yours.  In keeping with the HP theme I should call them Durmstrang and Hogwarts, but that might be a little confusing for non-HP fans out there. So I’ll just call them pre-K (the town, which he attends three mornings a week) and pre-school (which he attends the rest of the week), and hopefully that will do the trick.

A truly fun experience (yes, there is a tone of sarcasm here) is that we receive notice of events only days, and sometimes only one day, before the events occur. For example on Monday we received notice that pictures were being taken at his pre-K today. I learned the hard way already that I have to open his bag every night to see what surprises lurk in there, waiting to send the family into a tizzy to get ready for the next morning at pre-K. Unfortunately I don’t always learn from my mistakes and sometimes I find myself opening the bag the night before he goes back to pre-K, and the tizzy begins.

So the photos here show the best we could do in dressing him on such short notice of picture day. I managed to give him a haircut this week, despite his many protests, so at least he won’t look like a miniature Beatle (the group, not the insect) in the pictures. With luck they’ll take the pictures before they give them snack or send them to gym class.

Thankfully the pre-school gave us notice of their picture day three weeks in advance… but that still doesn’t mean I know what I’m dressing him in until that day…. it’s just that I won’t be able to blame them if I’m scurrying around the morning of pictures trying to figure out what to send him to school in).

Have a great day!!!

Now, as the social worker puts it, “we sit tight and wait.” He said he will be in touch as soon as he hears anything from DCF. I’ll be posting here when we do get updates.

Jaden started school again today. He goes three days each week to the local elementary school for a pre-K class, then the rest of the week he’s at his pre-school in the next town. It ends up being a lot of driving for me. The school district won’t bus him to the next town, so after his morning with pre-K I have to drive him to his pre-school for the remainder of the day.

Last year he refused to get on the morning bus — we figured out after a month or so of me driving him into pre-K that he was afraid of the bus driver, an elderly man who happens to be a curmudgeon, in my opinion. I should have known when the transportation folks told me that “all of the younger kids love the bus driver” that they were setting me up for failure. Either that or having a good laugh at the other end of the line.

The point is that last year I had to drive him to and from pre-K, then drop him off at pre-school, then go to work. This year at least I just have to put him on the bus, then wait for the bus and drive him to pre-school, then go to work. It’s a little less driving intensive for me.

I could put him in a different pre-school in the afternoon (one that the school district will actually drive him to) but our options are limited, and he’s so comfortable with this pre-school after being there for two years already. I’d hate to have to move him. The less change we have in Jaden’s world, the better it is for all of us.

Here’s a picture of Jaden getting ready for his first day back at pre-K. When I took this picture I learned that my phone has a flash — who knew? — that’s why the reflective strip on Jaden’s jacket is glowing. By the way, he’s grinning from ear-to-ear because he thought it was cute that he was wearing his sneakers on his hands instead of his feet.

Do you love the long hair, or hate it?

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p.s. this was updated at 5:45 p.m. so if you saw the slide show earlier, there are now new pictures.

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The disaster occurred because the visit scheduled for 10:45 a.m. — shortly before Jaden’s normal 11:00 a.m. lunchtime (and noon nap time)–did not go as scheduled. I don’t know if I realized how close we were to lunch when I made the appointment, or if it was the only appointment I could get with our preferred pediatrician. It probably would have worked out fine if it were our normal visit to the ped – walk in, get called into the examining area before we even take a seat in the waiting room, wait 5 minutes for the doc, spend 15-20 minutes and leave — home within the hour.

No such luck today. We arrived and waited in the waiting room, which by the way has no books or toys for kids other than a couple of those wire thingys with beads on them. After waiting about 30 minutes I asked the receptionist what was taking so long -they said the doc was running 30-45 minutes late. Now, had they told me this when I arrived I would have rescheduled, because at 45 minutes late, the timing is getting dangerously close to nap time, without lunch, and anyone with a 2 year old knows that a tired toddler is challenging, but a tired and hungry toddler is nearly impossible. However, they had not given me that information, and therefore I now had to decide whether to wait another 15 minutes, or cut my losses and go home.

Since it was already 11:15 I thought I’d be better off waiting. I should have known not to trust my instincts today (although how I should have known this, I don’t know). Or maybe I should have actually done the math to realize I’d be getting home very, very late.

There was one bout of waiting after another – waiting to get into the examining room, waiting for the doctor, and then waiting (seemingly forever) until the nurse with the vaccination showed up. By the time the doctor came in we were already nearly an hour past Jaden’s lunch time, and coming in for a crash landing on his nap time. He was one CRANKY baby. He hates doctors to begin with (who doesn’t? No offense, Neville) so he spent the next 20 minutes screaming, thrashing, kicking, squirming and at one point I thought he threw a punch at me, while the doctor tried to talk over his yells and perform the examination. He was so exhausted (and probably starving) that he fell asleep within seconds of putting his head on my shoulder after the doctor finished prodding him. Then the doc gives me the good news – he needs a vaccination (I was told he wouldn’t need any at this visit) – oh, yay. The docs are too smart to freak the kids out by giving them needles themselves, so they make the nurses administer the sharp stuff.

So to add to the already crappy visit, by the time the nurse showed up Jaden had been asleep on my shoulder for nearly 20 minutes and the nurse stabbed him while he was still sleeping. She thought it would be better that way. I thought he’d possibly be afraid to fall asleep in my arms ever again, since now he’ll never know when mommy’s going to hand him over to the evil nurse with the needle. Okay, maybe I’m paranoid.

Now Jaden was really screaming at the top of his lungs, naked as a Jaybird (LOL– pun intended), and I had to try to dress him (another one of his favorite activities — sarcasm intended) then carry him out into the bitter cold, snap him into his car seat and drive him home. Screaming all the way. That sounds like a Christmas song to me…

“Dashing through the snow

in a barentz blue Volvo

All the world can hear

Jaden screaming as we go

ah ah ah….

There’s no way we’re taking a nap

so it’s early to bed tonight

These docs make Jaden cry and scream

and give him an awful fright…”

Okay… now I’ve really lost it. No, antina, I’m not drinking (at the moment).

Back to my story – by the time we got home it was 12:45 — two full hours after our original appointment time. Starving, over-tired, with a 20 minute nap on my shoulder, this boy was not going to give me a break and take his usual 12:00 to 2:00 nap. I tried, I really did. I tried hard. He just didn’t want to sleep. At one point I even just told him Mommy needs a fifteen minute nap after that doctor’s appointment – so he waited in his crib and let me sleep. What a good boy. He must love me. He must also have a very good internal clock, since he woke me up nearly 15 minutes on the nose, saying and signing “train”. Ahhhh – he wants to play with his new train we got him for his birthday. So we did.

Here’s some pictures from Christmas:

We went to Grandma and Grandpa’s for Easter. We had a nice weekend and it was great for Jaden to spend some time with his aunts and uncles he hadn’t seen in a while. He also got to meet his cousins (my cousin’s kids) which was really great. 

Jaden has been doing better with sleeping, except now he has trouble when we’re not at home. My theory is that he’s so used to his own bed right now that any change is disconcerting to him. So this time we only spent one night at Grandma and Grandpa’s, and not being overtired two days in a row helped a lot. For the time being we’ll probably do the one night only when we go  - at least until Jaden is a little older.  

On Sunday evening Aunt Tina came home with us to spend a few days. She was here until Wednesday morning. Jaden had an amazing time with her. You can tell Aunt Tina is an excellent teacher. She was able to encourage Jaden to communicate using sign language, which Neville and I have been trying to teach him since he came home in October- but we never had much luck. I know I”ve mentioned before that we thought he was using signs every once in a while, but he was never really consistent about it. Aunt Tina somehow had him signing in the two days she spent here. She somehow made a very complicated task look so simple! Jaden now signs ‘more’, ‘cracker’, and  ”all done.” I’m hoping that if we’re consistent about picking up on what he is signing that he’ll be encouraged to learn more signs. I noticed he pays rapt attention to his Baby Signing Time DVD now, so that is a good sign (no pun intended). Part of the difficulty with baby signing is that you have to be able to pick up on the gestures that to you look nothing like the sign that is intended, while the baby is wondering why you just don’t get what he’s trying to communicate. The more this happens, the less likely he’ll try to sign. Unfortunately Jaden doesn’t yet realize that eye contact is necessary for me to understand him, so he’ll do things while I’m walking away. Aunt Tina was able to pick up on this and now I”m being more cognizant of what he’s doing at all times (although walking backwards is getting tiring – LOL). 

We had Jaden’s 15 month pediatrician visit on Tuesday. It was — difficult. Ever since we had the bad experience with the three RN’s at the outpatient center trying to take blood from Jaden’s arms about 6 times, he is petrified of anyone in a lab coat. Even Neville has to take his lab coat off when Jaden and I visit him at work, or Jaden starts to get wiggy. It makes doctor’s appointments really horrific. Thankfully Aunt Tina was with us and was able to help calm Jaden down periodically, but it was really heart-wrenching to have to watch him get so upset, even though nothing ‘bad’ was happening. It seemed to drag on — just when we thought the doctor would be finished, she’d say “Okay just one more thing…”

When the pediatrician was finally done with her examination and questioning, she started to talk about shots he needed, and I was thinking ‘Are you nuts? Haven’t we traumatized him enough today?’ He cried for nearly an hour in the examination room – in my opinion, that was plenty for one morning. Besides, I don’t know if Aunt Tina and I could have taken any more gut wrenching. So we made another appointment to get the 4 vaccines he is due for. I booked it for a morning Neville can go with us. My plan: Let Neville be the ‘bad’ parent (and hold Jaden down for his shots) for once. LOL

The original point of the major tangent I just jumped out of is that Jaden has grown like mad these past few months. He’s now 33 inches and 26 lbs 10 oz. So his weight has stabilized but he’s growing taller – and fast!! It has been interesting to watch the changes in his face and his body as he grows. He goes through periods where he eats and eats and eats, seemingly never getting enough – he’ll fill out – his cheeks get pudgier, his belly gets bigger – and then all of a sudden he’ll thin out, almost overnight — now I know what is meant by “growth spurts.” 

An update on the teething -last I saw (yesterday?) one of Jaden’s eye teeth was right at the surface – it looked like it would pop through at any moment. We had a couple of good nights and last night was okay except for a few wakings…. so for now I guess the major pain is over with. The other three canines are swollen, so they’re getting ready to make a break for it as well. Soon we’ll have a break from teething pain (right Grandma? ) 

Our music class ended a week or so ago – so right now we’re in the middle of things – waiting for his museum class and his swimming lessons to start. It’s probably a good thing there’s not much going on for Jaden – I’ve had a lot to do for work these past couple of weeks. I spent more time on paperwork for work than anything else. There’s nothing like being on an unpaid leave of absence!

Somehow our trusty gate was not closed and our little adventurer decided to try to take the front hallway stairs by himself. Those are the stairs that are hardwood – very hard hardwood. When I ran in to see if he was okay, he was face down on the floor. He started crying almost immediately after the fall (I guess it first startled him enough that he didn’t know what happened), and when I picked him up it looked like he had a dent in his forehead. A little ice (which necessitated a fight with Jaden since he HATES having the ice pack on him…. like mother, like son with that one) and the dent went away, the bump went down, eventually the crying stopped, and he acted fine the rest of the night.

Jaden does fine going UP the stairs on his own. The problem is that he doesn’t realize yet his legs aren’t long enough to reach the next step when he tries to go DOWN the stairs. Neville had left the kitchen area where everyone was congregated to show his uncle around the house, so I’m guessing since the gate wasn’t up Jaden decided to follow his Dad. I suppose he went up a few steps, realized he wasn’t going to find his Daddy, and decided to turn around and go back into the kitchen with everyone else. 

Now, I did say everything was fine that night, but the next day I had the scare of my life. Jaden was acting fine when he woke up but then around 9:00 a.m. he started getting lethargic, which is unusual for my very active son. He kept wanting to sit in my lap and do *nothing* which is another sign that something is wrong. Then around 10:30 he fell asleep and I couldn’t wake him up easily, and when I did manage to rouse him he wanted to go right back to sleep. I called the pediatrician and they said “get him to the Children’s Hospital emergency room right away -we’ll call and let them know you are coming.”

“thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump” that’s the sound of my heart beating 10 times quicker than normal… I drove as calmly as I could to the hospital, and even managed to keep the swear words to myself when an 18-wheeler semi decided to change lanes ON TOP OF ME and I barely got out of the way by swerving into the breakdown lane. 

Now I’m really frantic…

A half hour to the hospital and insanity finding parking (there’s no ER parking in the “city”!) and then another 3 hours getting our blood pressure, weight, etc. done, then waiting, then filling out paperwork, then waiting, then seeing a nurse, then waiting, then finally seeing a doctor, and waiting again for them to discharge us. The whole time they asked us not to feed Jaden or give him anything to drink in case the doctor wanted to run certain tests. So the poor baby didn’t eat from 9:00 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon. He was a *little* cranky by then. Neville took the afternoon off from work and met us at the hospital around 12:30 – thank goodness for that because I was a basket case by then.

After all of the waiting we find out Jaden is okay. He started acting “normal” again after the first half hour at the hospital and the doctor said if there’s anything to worry about he would have gotten progressively worse, and not shown any signs of being ‘normal’ or ‘better.’ This was good to know. Thankfully I had the wherewithal to throw some food into the diaper bag so while we waited form them to discharge us we were able to feed Jaden. They finally discharged us, and we raced home to eat.    

We learned a very good lesson. Hopefully Neville will not disappear again without letting me know. I won’t ever let my eyes off of Jaden again no matter what distractions are tugging at my attention, and anyone who leaves the gate open again is —- well I can’t think of anything that’s not too evil to print, but I’m sure I will if it happens again (yes, Neville, that includes you!)… tee hee.

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