Now that’s motivation!

Last night was the first night of Learn to Skate for Hockey. The fact that Isaac is taking hockey lessons is something that is a sure source for irritation among specific members of Isaac’s educational team. When I emailed the physical therapist (PT) to ask if he had to wear the AFOs with the skates, I got a full on lecture about how teaching him to play hockey maybe wasn’t the right choice of sport. She went on and on and on about how he may have trouble negotiating a stick, puck and otherwise and maybe putting him in a regular learn to skate program would be more beneficial.

 

Yeah. RIGHT. Put the kid on skates with no gear and only give a half hour lesson with a half hour of free skate that would be beyond frustrating for a very beginner. Yeah. No.

That was motivation number one-being told he couldn’t do it.

So, we headed off to the rink last (friday) night and geared the kid up. I swear. Doing the whole gear thing reminded me of this:

Yes, extended deep sea diving.

 

Because first, over the long underwear style Speed Racer pajamas, we had the chest/shoulder protection, the elbow pads, the shin/knee pads, the hockey undies, the socks, pants, gloves, jersey  and skates…and then the helmet with full face cage…

 

The one thing Isaac wanted most in the world was his stick. We put the pirate tape on it and this became motivator number 2.

 

Since my child has no clue on how to skate, he started out on buckets. Using them for support and pushing the buckets across the ice. There were tears, there were falls, and one fall was a massive bell ringer-thank GOD for helmets!

 

There was even a conversation about how he couldn’t play hockey without a stick…and I told him that he had to be off a bucket before he could hold onto his stick.

 

And there was one sweet, wonderful big kid. He got Isaac up and moving and even got him a puck…and his stick.

 

Motivator number 3 anyone?

 

By the end of the night, my darling shrimp had stick in hand, was standing up and moving without a bucket…and whacking at a puck.

So, mix all 3 motivators in and it’s kind of obvious-we’ve got a hockey player on our hands.

 

And for me…well, it’s motivation to get knitting on some warm stuff. That ice rink is FREEZING. It’s also motivation to make sure that I’ve got fresh batteries in my camera. Mine DIED LAST NIGHT! Stupid stinkin batteries.

 

You know your child watches Mythbusters too much when…

you’re sitting at a gas station, and he looks over at the car wash and the PVC pipe holding up the sign and says…

 

“oh, look! It’s a  Chicken GUN”

 

Hockey Equipment 101-or why I really should listen to my gut.

Today, Isaac had a half day, due to grades 1-5’s parent conferences. Oh, fun. So, we miss a full day of resource and therapies…but I digress. I picked the small boy up a smidge early and took him to purchase his hockey skates, stick and other items. We ran our errands and then progressed onto attempting to purchase the skates. My first instinct was to go to Kemp’s. BUUUUUTTTT, since I had done something slightly stupid with Isaac’s adderol prescription (don’t ask. It’s a classic Laura maneuver. I’ll just leave it at that.), I decided that we should stop at Dick’s, since it was on the way.

 

Yeah. Bad idea. Superbad idea.

I walk in with Isaac, and find the way through the new store to the hockey department. There, we get a pair of skates, a roll of clear tape (for the socks) and a mouthguard. I didn’t think the skates were right-they seemed waaay too big, but I was told they would work. Heck! What do I know! I’m a first time hockey parent. They also didn’t have the hockey undies that he requires to play. The guy that was “helping” us didn’t even know that there were special protective underwear for hockey, and tried to sell us a run of the mill jock. No, no, no. How are we supposed to keep the socks up? seriously! The hockey specific ones have velcro on the bottom of them that you stick the socks to.

Then, we got some bad recommendations on the stick. They tried to sell us a STREET HOCKEY stick for an ice hockey game. Yikes! Plus, since all of the sticks were too long, I asked if they cut them to size for the player. He said we could do it ourselves. When I asked for measurement guidelines, he gave me a blank stare.

 

Not the right answer.

 

So, we were headed for Kemp’s. I purchased the wrong skates, inquired about the return policy and made sure that we could return them unworn, unsharpened if they turned out to be the wrong skate., which I was almost positive they were…but again, I didn’t know.

 

We get to Kemp’s, Doug laughing at me the whole way for the simple fact that 1) I knew where the hockey store was, and 2) he knew how this was all going to end up.

 

We meet up with a wonderful young man who we asked to help us fit Isaac properly for skates. Turns out he got his start in the youth hockey program where Isaac is starting! YIPEE!

He fitted Isaac properly for a pair of skates, thereby letting us know that the kind we bought were too flexible for Isaac and were also a full size too large!

 

Yeah. Great.

This meant we had to take the wrong skates back. Thank the good lord I asked about the return policy.

Stop laughing at me for not listening to my gut. I did enough yelling at myself the entire time we were driving back to Dick’s.

So, after purchasing the proper skates, stick (with pirate theme grip tape) and hockey undies, we made the trek back to the offending store. I walked in with the bag, and was greeted by the customer assistance person at the door. She asked me what was wrong with the purchase, and  I told her-

Wrong size and too flexible.

She looked at me funny and pointed me to the guy at the register.

 

So, the lesson here in all of this is that I should go with my first instinct and NOT with the one that comes when I’ve done something stupid and I’m trying to consolidate travel.

 

Man. Hockey is complicated!

 

“So, do you have a good dental plan?”

Yeah. My friend asked me that. She’s lucky I’ve known her since high school and I have one of her kids in my computer classes at school AND is my favorite pampered chef consultant… Otherwise, I’d have to whack her.

What brought her to ask me this pivotal question?

What did I do to make her wonder about my dental coverage?

I signed Isaac up for youth hockey.

Yes, you all read that right. Youth Hockey. This level is called “learn to skate for hockey” and is the first in the progression towards full out hockey. How did this all come about? Frankly, I’m still in shock that I did this, but it all started, as it always does, with an announcement from the shrimp…

“Mommy. I want to join the River Rats.”

(do you all hear the sound of forehead hitting hand here?)

After a long explanation that first, he couldn’t skate and secondly he was too young-he announced this:
“mommy-I want to play hockey.”

Ok, I can get behind that. It must have been providence that I opened my email the  next morning and saw that the school PTO email list had sent out a list of activities and announcements (they do it every week) and one was a “learn to skate” and “learn to skate for hockey.” Hrm.

So, I made some phone calls on my break at work, and found out that it was an option for us. I quickly signed the small boy up and proceeded to update my facebook status to “oh, my, what have I done?” or something like that.

I didn’t let the small boy in on the whole thing until Sunday morning. I just didn’t want to hear all weekend about hockey, hockey, hockey. Meanwhile, I’d been quietly scoping out where to get certain hockey items that we can’t get through the loaner program-and wouldn’t want to…Really-I’m not allowing my child to use someone else’s hockey undies. No thanks.

Sunday morning rolls around and I get the small boy dressed and we head off to the open house. He thought we were going to take him to play on the trains at Barnes and Noble. Nope. Not at all. We drove to the ice rink, where we found that it was colder inside the rink than it was outside the rink! YIKES!

I then asked my darling crazy child if he wanted to still learn how to play hockey, and he excitedly yelped at the top of his lungs and ripped off his seat belt.

Thank goodness there were the coaches to help us gear up. We made a choice to use loaner gear for this season, as hockey costs add up FAST. Hardcore fast. For just pads and things, you’re looking at 100.00 on the low end of things. YIKES! And being my child is supertiny, and still growing, he’ll most likely outgrow things faster than we can buy them! eek!

Starting in November, I’m going to no longer be soccer mom, I’m going straight to hockey mom!

And yes, I’ve already put Dr. Nancy, Dr. Jen and Dr. Jason on alert…

 

It’s just got to be hockey season because…

We not only had a pre-season River Rats game here…

With lots of fights, because now, we’ve got a NORTHWAY SERIES BACK!

Isaac got his face painted at the game and some silly gear courtesy of Nana…

and then we had opening night…

Can I begin this tale of hilarity by saying that I had a target on my chest? I was hanging down at the boards with Puddle (as she does) and Isaac, who seems to love all of the banging around of warm ups, and toward the end, a puck came flying over the boards. Normal occurance. Seriously normal. WELL, it came and hit me in the chest-bounced off me and went down on the ground. Isaac scrambled and got the puck…and I grabbed Puddle’s phone and put up the following status…

Just got hit in the hooters with a puck! must be hockey season!

Yep. it’s true. I did. Yes, it’s hilarious. I think I deserve one of those hot as all get out 3rd jerseys for my humiliation and pain. But I digress.

My little guy got a new hat…

and we watched a very young team really try and pull it out.

Isaac watched Mommy go slightly nutty yelling….

and exercise huge restraint in not throttling the old, grumpy geezer in front of them who thought children didn’t belong at a hockey game, and told a few parents so.

Then, we went down on the ice after the game for the Meet the Players session.

Isaac was beyond excited that we got to go onto the ice. He could NOT believe that we were actually walking on ice. He asked me a few times for ice skates. I told him he had to master the art of soccer cleats before he could even THINK of getting on skates.

Isaac got his hockey stick signed by the entire team, save for the coaches. They didn’t come out. I think the assistant coach was trying to find ways to tell them of the Curse of Meet the Players Night…but I digress.

Then, asked Isaac if I could do one thing. Take his picture in the goal…

We’ll be back for more games. I know it. I just know it.

I’ve finally corrupted my son to the dark side…Hockey is the appropriate sport…

 

The great backpack fiasco of 2009, the reprise!

Let me start this tale by saying that I hadn’t planned on this happening. Seriously. I hadn’t. But, Isaac demanded that I send applesauce in with him, in his Star Wars thermos, so I did. BUT, he didn’t close it all the way, and whammo. Applesauce all over the pack.

We did what any parent worth their salt would do. Empty the pack and toss it in the washing machine with the next load of wash, which happened to be towels. We’ve done this with all of our packs and bags, both REI, EMS and LL Bean. We have never, ever, ever had a pack come out of the wash looking like this:

Needless to say, I was NOT impressed with the LL Bean backpack that we had fought so hard to get. Knowing full well LL Bean has a satisfaction guarantee, and that we needed a backpack for the morning, I called the local store.

I had a nice chat with a kindly gentleman, who totally understood my predicament and really wanted to help me out…but they don’t carry the LL Bean Original Bookpack in the store. They only have them online.

Yes, I knew that.

So, I told him that I didn’t care if we got a deluxe bookpack or whatever, as long as we had SOMETHING that met the following criteria:
1) was red.
2) was large enough to hold snowpants, a lunch box and other assorted things in the winter.
3) was small enough for a kindergartener’s back.
4) Would last for a few years.

He told me he had two things in stock-
1) the deluxe bookpack.
2) the critter backpack, which has a shark on it.

Now, the only problem is that these two backpacks cost a bit more than the one I purchased. I was NOT willing to pay for the upgrade to the backpack. I wanted a straight out even exchange if I was going to be made to get a more expensive pack.

I explained this to the kindly gentleman on the phone who explained that he couldn’t do this without a manager’s approval.

I understand that. It’s at least at $10.00 difference!

Now, it’s here that some people would say that I’m being unreasonable. I don’t think I am after what we went through to GET the pack in the first place, and the fact that we had purchased it in July, never even took it out of the package until September and my child had only used it to and from school for not even 3 weeks. Also, to refresh memories, I was given lectures on how I was going to ruin my child’s bones by purchasing the pack that I did, even though I explained I knew how to load a backpack and would be sure to watch out for overloading…and how can you overload a kindergarten backpack? I even did my homework on ratings, age appropriateness and the like. So, I don’t feel I’m being unreasonable.

Back to the tale…

Kindly gentleman puts me on hold and comes back and lets me know that the manager had approved the even swap, due to our immediate need and extenuating circumstances. I tell the nice guy that I’ll be in to get the pack in about 30-45 minutes.

I hop in the car and head down to the mall and the LL Bean store. I walk in and take the pack to the register. Explain the whole story, tell them that there’s a critter pack waiting for me and that I just need to do the whole exchange.

Then, I see her. One of the lecture givers…and she said “Oh, is that the jr. backpack?”
I told her it wasn’t and got the eye roll…then, she accused me of putting the pack in the DRYER.

Umm..the pack was still wet from the washer! How could it have even come CLOSE to going through the dryer?

As I’m being rung out, the clerk notices that the critter pack was more expensive than the backpack I was returning. I explain what I was told on the p hone, and they bring back Ms. Lecture. She ok’s the even exchange and I go on my way…to deliver this:

To a waiting 5 year old, who was beyond happy that his new backpack was:
1) red
2) had a shark on it.

Now, can we please just get through the year without another fiasco that involves a backpack or a part of Isaac’s room?

 

How I stopped complaining and learned to sort of like suburbia.

The first soccer game of the rec season was today, and it was quite the sight. Isaac belongs to team Kiwi…Yeah…BRIGHT green. Seriously, bright green.

See?

We had the AFO’s that Rob had so awesomely rigged to hold the shin guards…

And yet I was totally afraid.

Of what?

Well, remember last time we tried to play soccer? Isaac ended up getting beaned in the face intentionally by another kid. He was tripped, made fun of and asked to do things that with AFOs, are impossible. It went so poorly, I didn’t know what to think. Those parents were out for blood, guts and total other team annihilation. NOT my idea of how beginning sports should be!

Plus, I remember when I played sports, it was the parents again who were horrid.

So, it was with huge trepidation that I stepped on to the soccer field in the E. Nowhere suburbia that I live in.

Turns out, my worries were for nothing.

The coach explained to the kids on team Kiwi that their objective was to play a bit and have fun, take turns and possibly get the ball into the net. Kindergarten-3rd grade teams don’t keep score or win-loss records. It’s all about coming out and having a good time in the fall air.

Coach Greg swapped the players out as much as he could, so everyone could play in their team dresses shirts.

Note-whoever ordered the shirts for the kindergarten division-YOUTH LARGE  (size 12-14) is a dress on 100% of kindergarteners!  Just sayin.

Isaac got to run and chase the ball

Play goalie

Hear the other parents cheer for him, tell him he did an awesome job, even though he missed the ball, and learn the basics of good sportsmanship.

Coach Greg got them all lined up at the end of the game (by this time it was drizzling rain. My camera went back to the car..) for the post game handshake.

He had them play follow the leader with their right hand out (and they had to switch to their other right!) and high five and tell the other team good game.

Ok, so suburban fall soccer at least for now isn’t so bad. I at least got to stop complaining and sort of like the E. Nowhere I live in. It’s got some decent things going for it!

 

Little Boy, Big School

Today was the first day of Kindergarten. The bus comes mighty early, so Isaac was ready, excited and all raring to go, way before I was.
He insisted on wearing his Darth Vader shirt-that’s my little Star Wars boy-and his new hoodie, and brought the red backpack that set off the first fiasco of the school year.

Then, we heard it-the distinct rumble of the school bus

and the little boy, who is off to the big school to begin all sorts of new adventures cheered!

Got on the bus like a pro, sat right behind the driver and went off.

No, I didn’t cry. He was too happy to go off to Kindergarten-snack, folder and red backpack in tow, to meet new friends, have new adventures and finally share what a neato kid he is with more people than just his little world.

So, my little boy is now a kindergarten kid in a big school-and he likes it.

 

The back to school roller coaster

There’s a lot going on around here. With school starting and the like, it’s been one heck of a ride the past few weeks.

When you have a special needs child that goes to kindergarten or even changes schools, it just becomes that extra bit of twitch factor that other parents don’t have. Add that to everything else, and you get a back to school roller coaster that just doesn’t slow down.

Personally, I’d like this coaster to pull into the station, but I know when it does, I’ll complain that life is boring again (especially here in E. Nowhere) and I’ll wish to be back on.

So, here’s the latest roller coaster set of moments.

Now that Broken Bed fiasco 2009 has ended with a successfully fixed bed, we can all laugh at the latest piece of delusion that came through my mailbox-
a card thanking us for our purchase.
No, not kidding.
a week of screaming, sobbing and being totally glad that the boys weren’t here so that the bed could get fixed in peace, and we get a postcard for a year old bed? What?
Whatever.
Will I patronize this store again? Most likely, at the location that gave us the most help. I, however, will not deal with the person who shares my name and her customer disservice.

Since coming back from the outlaws in Arizona, my darling shrimper has been nothing short of a pill. Massive pill. Rude, spoiled and entitled acting. That’s what happens when you hang with the outlaws too long. I spent the first week back retraining him that 1) being rude will get you nowhere but your room, with all priveleges revoked, like your television viewing, and 2) you may not have everything you see, control the agenda to your heart’s desire, or speak to me like I’m the hired help. Again, this will get you nowhere but your room, with no television.

And no, a 45 minute meltdown will STILL get you nowhere.

Charming, isn’t it?

Then, Shrimper thought it would be a good idea to explore the cabinets on the top of his wall. His room has built in cabinets, and these cabinets are almost at ceiling level. I get a call at work on my cell phone, and hear that he’s fallen off of the cabinets and hit his face. Yes, huge bruise and scrape on cheek and neck. Great way to show up to the first week of Kindergarten-bruises and scrapes. Joy.

And then, we had the biggest ride of all. The medication ride. Isaac’s ADHD meds are insanely expensive. Hardcore expensive. That’s even WITH insurance. So, we found a few coupons to cover at least one of the copays. That’s when the pharmaceutical companies began their rain on my labor day weekend. Our coupon was declined at the pharmacy, because we had used one, and it was one per person, per lifetime.

what? Really?

So, we come back, call the doctor and explain the situation. She comes back with a card that gives us 50% off of copays for 10 months.

Ok. we can get behind that.

so, I drive all the way down to the doc’s office, and then all the way back home so we can activate the card and get the meds, as we’re down to our last 2 pills and two pills and a bunch of days doesn’t add up around here, especially with kindergarten starting.

Let it be known that I disclosed what happened at the pharmacy to the doc’s office. They assured me that this would be just fine and work well.

Yeah, it didn’t work. So, I spent a better portion of two hours dealing with Shire pharmaceuticals and their idiot staff. Here’s how it all broke down…

First step-talk to customer service and explain the situation. Get an extremely rude rep, who makes sure that she lets me know that this is totally my fault, and that the doctor could NOT have told me that this card would work.
Finally, I get her to give me the number to patient assistance, and I thank her for her unhelpfulness.

Second step-Call the number that witch 1 gave me. Get understanding person who unfortunately confirms rude witch’s stuff, but hears me out and issues us a “second use” card for the price of the perscription. She informed us that the card wouldn’t get here until Friday. I also explain to her that the cost is prohibitive to us, even though we have insurance. She puts me through to patient assistance, where….

I get the most sarcastic, obnoxious rep ever. I explain the situation, explain the whole thing and he starts to get sarcastic with me. He tells me I have to fill out an application, and me, knowing that we’re almost down to our last pill for the shrimp, says “I don’t want to be filling out 80 yards of paperwork just to be denied.”

Jerk says: “well, if you mean one page equals 80 yards, than yeah, you’ll be filling out 80 yards of paperwork.” and then he laughed.

I broke into tears and told him he wasn’t funny.

THEN he had the nerve to tell me that this process could take at least 2 months, because since we had insurance, we’d be automatically denied, and we’d have to appeal.

Really? Automatic denial? What the…

So, since we can’t wait 30 days, I ask if he is the final word, because he’s refusing to do anything. He tells me that even his supervisor won’t do anything for me.

This is where I finally lost it. I told him the following:
“Too bad. Stuff gets overridden every day. You don’t say another word to me and I want your supervisor now.”

I get the supervisor and she almost gets her head taken off with the following statement:

“well, if you had called yesterday, you wouldn’t be in this situation! This is almost 7 pm on a holiday weekend…”

Everyone knows how well that line goes over with me.

Let’s review here…this medication is a SCHEDULE 2 CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE. This means you MAY NOT get it any sort of early. So, like the bed fiasco, how were we supposed to know that this was going to happen?

I very politely took her head off reminding her of this fact. I told her that because of the nature of the drug and their lack of any sort of urgency in this situation, that my child is being made to suffer. She then put me on hold.

She came back and they’re supposedly fed exing the card to me by tomorrow (tuesday). Should be interesting.

Meanwhile, we had our “booster pills” here, and we’ve been giving them to him, and we’ve kind of noticed something…

Shrimper’s disposition has changed drastically. We’d been dealing with the “whine monster” and wondering if it was just stress from changing schools, ect, or if it was the meds. With a 5 year old, it’s hard to tell.

So, Shire may have f’d up in our favor…letting us know that we had a side effect that we just chalked up to something else.

I’ll be on the phone with the neurologist’s office on Tuesday.

Then, the last piece is that of meet the teachers/aides/therapists. I’ve been trying to get answers out of the school all summer as to meeting Isaac’s aide and having him meet the teachers, ect. AND the biggest question-who is doing resource room for him. This is just what happens with a special needs kid. I’m still at the top of the hill on this wild ride with this one, so hopefully, these are only mini hills that will end on Tuesday morning.

 

Announcements from the peanut gallery that make me twitch

Isaac is a one of a kind kid-to the point where it causes me to say the kid is just oddball. One of the things he does is announce what he wants to do or us to get him involved in. Prime example-

Before he went to Arizona to visit the outlaws with Doug, he announced that he wanted to play soccer.

Yeah. Ok. After the last trial of soccer, I wasn’t too sure. He was targeted by 2 kids and one actually threw a ball in his face. Literally. Hit him in the face with a ball. the instructor and parent did NOTHING. Yeah. I wasn’t sure. BUT, I’m not one to tell him he can’t do something.

So, I began hunting for places other than the one to play fall soccer at. I found one in a neighboring city, but even though that’s close to Mom and Dad’s house and where I work, I’d rather have Isaac play with kids in the neighborhood. Isn’t that half the reason you play sports? To get to know the kids around you and play with your friends?

So, I went and found a local soccer club that he could play on, but it turned out it was waaay too expensive-and was a TRAVEL CLUB. Not for first timers. I don’t understand what parent would put their 5 or 6 year old on a travel club that costs that much and is that much pressure with tryouts, ect. Not my idea of what beginning sports should be like, but I digress.

The expensive travel club emailed me back (because I emailed them about financial assistance-I really can’t afford $300.00 for my 5 year old to play soccer!) and suggested I look into the town rec league.

Hrm. Didn’t know the town had a rec league.
I got on line and looked it up, and made the phone call to the appropriate person, and asked about a million questions…and found out that we still had time to register! WOOHOO!

After PT the following day, I shot over to the town offices and got everything all locked and loaded. I got the email receipt and there was a note on the bottom that said:
“all players must wear shin guards. Cleats are reccomended but not required.”

I hadn’t thought of that.

How in the name of all things holy are we going to get ones that fit over AFO’s? How in the name of all things holy are we going to get cleats that aren’t too long and can take the bulk of a shin guard and sock and AFO?

Yeah, No clue here. So, I called the town person and played 20 questions about where to get the stuff. She reccomended Play it again Sports-deals in new and used equipment, because with the cleats, little kids wear them one season and then they need new ones because their feet grow! Why pay all of that money for cleats when you can get them in realllly good condition and on the cheap?

I’m with that.

I called Play it Again, and played 20 questions with them about cleats, AFOs and shin guards. I then went in after work and got the cleats and shin guards (with the AFO’s to make sure they fit…because for some reason, cleats run more narrow than any other shoe on the face of the planet.) and then promptly called the prosthetics office.

Why the prosthetics office? Easy. I wasn’t sure a) what kind of shin guards would work with AFOs and b) if there was a way to make them so they fit just perfectly and don’t impede the running he’s going to need to do.
After talking to the prosthetician who made Isaac’s AFOs, he had us make an appointment for today, and he’s going to modify the shin guards and check the cleats and the AFO’s. YAY!

What does he want for all of this?

Just a photo of the shrimper running the wrong way down the turf.

Ok. I can get behind that.