IEP aftermath

Yesterday, we had Isaac’s IEP annual review. As y’all know, I’m not the CPSE chair’s biggest fan. I’m not the biggest fan of the Nisky schools IEP team either…but thank GOD ECEC is on our side…and as a team we push for what Isaac needs…

Well, the IEP was smooth, and quick and whoah mama…over in 20 minutes!! This is a FIRST!

So, let’s hit the highlights (and no, there aren’t any lowlights!)

• Isaac is moving into the integrated classroom in the SUMMER, instead of wating until the fall! This is for a few reasons. First, his teacher is leaving in JUNE instead of August. Yeah, I about hit the roof. This would make 4 teachers in 2 years for him. No, not a good thing,a nd then he’d be switchng in September? No. No. No. Second, the director found a spot for him! Woohoo!
• Isaac has made SO much progress that the county person said she had to do a double take and make sure this was the same child that she had the report from last year! If we hadn’t mentioned integrated, she would have mentioned and pushed for it.
• With this comes a decrease in therapy. We’re entering the phase of more group sessions to get him ready for kindergarten. This summer, he’s getting therapy for “maintenence” and in the fall, it will increase again, but we’re dropping some speech therapy.
• Olive Foster was actually quite nice, and kind of rolled with what we wanted. Wonder if 3 IEP’s of dealing with me (initial-with refined goals and updates and 2 annual reviews) has just said “Give this mom what she wants..”
• We were in and out in 20 minutes
• I was able to have a conversation with the director of the school regarding some things…
• AND, ISAAC IS GOING TO INTEGRATED IN THE SUMMER! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!

So, seing this fact and knowing that his program ends at 1, and my nursing school program ends at 2:30, we need to find some wrap care, because I can’t be home when he gets there…and Doug will be back working again.

Since the kids that are in the integrated program with Isaac come from the day care upstairs, the most logical thing would be to have him go to the day care upstairs for the afternoon. But, y’all know me, I like to do my homework and all of that. Well, I called a few places and got some very surprising reactions.

First, I was told by one, very snippily, that “We don’t take part timers.” and hung up on. What the…

Well, you just lost potential dollars.

Then, I called Kidz Korner, and explained the situation. I got the most unexpected reaction-panic. The person that I spoke to was extremely scared of a “special needs child” and had never heard of the school that Isaac attends before. Her voice had the “please don’t pick us, please don’t pick us” tone to it. It was sheer panic.  This was really off-putting, because she’s never met Isaac and despite all of my reassurances that he is as normal as they come with a few exceptions, she was attempting to get me not to choose her center. Her big line? “Well, we’ll have to see if we can accomodate your child’s special needs.”

If you have to think about accomodating a child with a mild language delay who wears AFO’s, can maneuver over all sorts of terrian, and is more of a normal 4 year old than anything else…then you don’t get my business.

 

Then again, do I really want to send my son to a place with multiple mispellings on their website? I think not.

Wordless Wednesday, 4/30/08

Seen from my computer chair…

I was offloading my camera, and this is what I saw. I just had to take a picture…

and for those of you who swear I’m losing my mind by posting this as Wordless Wed. for a few hours..you’re right. Isaac’s IEP meeting is today and I get to deal with the wonderful Niskayuna School District CPSE chair…that’s right, the one who I overheard LOTS of fun things about…so, I’m losing my mind. But this photo had to stay. Tomorrow…I’ve got a set of photos.

Ok…what are they up to?

So, since NASCAR officially puked in Isaac’s room (Photos to follow at a later date..), we’ve been wondering what the outlaws are up to, especially after the latest round of “gifts.”

 

So, we got told that there were some NASCAR Die casts coming…so, when we called about the border (That’s another post for when I can explain Colostomy’s thinking…) and I was on the phone with Nascar.com superstore, and I happened to ask the guy (very nice, I might add!) what drivers got sent…he told me this:

They sent pretty much the ENTIRE Sprint cup series.

Yeah. I fainted too. That’s about 30-40 cars…and these are Hot Wheels size.

 

Nice gift, but a) what are they up to, and b) where in the name of all things holy am I going to put all of these dang things?

 

Oh, and for those of you who wondered what that drink was…don’t forget to hover over…and there’s a caption…but I’ll let you in on what it is…

It’s Boba tea, or Bubble Tea. It’s mango flavored (they’ve got other flavors..) and the black thngs? Those are tapioca balls cooked and soaked in a yummy solution…and it tastes almost like gummi bears. Yummmmmmmmmmm…and I got hooked on them in CA…

 

and not for the squeamish here, but Doug calls them…

 

 

“Kidney stone slushies”

 

lovely, huh?

Wordless Wednesday, 4/23/08

Gender equality? Where the heck is it?

So, this evening, I went to Target to purchase undies for the Monkey. We are sick of pull ups and think that they suck except for bedtime pushing the potty training agenda a bit further with our stubborn Monkey, so we’re sending him in undies to school. Welcome back from spring break! Surprise!! Heh.

So, first, let’s discuss the disparity of girls’ undies vs boys’ undies at Target. Every…stinkin…girl…undie was there…in multi packs. In all sizes. In all sorts of patterns that a kid would want to wear.

Boys undies? Not so much. I found every size, except for Isaac’s size…I ended up finding a few…and here’s where my head started to spin…

I ended up purchasing a 7 pack of Elmo undies for Isaac for a price of 9.99.

The girls’ undies (also elmo, also 7 pack) were…8.50.

Yeah. where the heck is the justice? First the blue scooter being more (in most places) than the pink scooter and now boys’ undies are more than girls’ undies? WHY??? Do they think parents of boys can afford more than parents of girls? Is this some kind of lead up for a trade off with haircuts? I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.

And I’d like to know when Curious George only became a girl thing. There were NO Curious George boy undies to be found anywhere.

All I want is to pay the same thing for the same product…just in a color/manner/way that suits my BOY.

Lord. I don’t get it.

Build A Bear Birthday!

On Friday, we took The_angel_forever, NHL and JSL to Build A Bear to celebrate Isaac’s birthday a day early. We were originally going to do it yesteray, but big holidays (read: Passover!) got in the way of the plans…so we just went one day early!

(a big thank you to The_angel_Forever for the use of some of these photos-it’s hard to take pictures and wrangle a birthday boy at the same time!!)

So, we arrived at the Mecca of Stuffed Animals known as Build A Bear Workshop and let both crazy boys in…and they were greeted by this sight:

We gave both boys a few choices, but really…if you’re a 4 year old boy…and one of the choices is a Dinosaur…specifically a Triceratops…do you really want to look at ANYTHING else?

Yeah. When we were planning this, we didn’t think so either, but we wanted to give choices just in case they surprised us…

So, off to the stuffer we went…

and then grabbed hearts…

And the dinos got stitched up…and then…

it was…

Then it was off to attempt to take photos of the two goofballs with their dinos…

With two cameras going, you’d think we’d get a straight shot of the two of them…

JSL was quite confusled by the goofy 4 year olds at this point…

Then, we got the dinos T-shirts and blue dino slippers (wearing sunglasses!!) and went to name them on the computers. Of course, the one computer that we could NEVER, EVER get to work properly when I was working there was the one that NHL sat down at. Argh. So, after I got Isaac’s done, I did NHL’s on the computer I was sitting at.

We wrangled our way up to the cash wrap (or Take me Home, as it’s called in BABW…) and as we were paying the boys decided to…well…be goofy 4 year olds again…

So, after wrangling them away from the Bear Wall…we got houses for the dinos (named Trike and Dino respectively..) and attempted like crazy people like good mommies to attempt to take a picture OUTSIDE the store.

Remember the last set inside the store?

Yeah. It went that well. Behold.

So, then, we went around the corner to Pizzeria Uno for lunch. YUMMMMMMY!

But even with a silly lunch (Dino nuggets for NHL and pepperoni pizza for Isaac…), it was a great day for both kids! Isaac was thrilled to spend a few hours with NHL, and have birthday fun. This is the first year he’s verbalized that he “gets” it…so, it was a blast.

Now…if I could only keep the roaring in his bedroom at night to a minimum…

Happy Birthday, Monkey!

It’s hard to believe that 4 years ago today, he looked like this:

My little baby is (almost) gone and is now a confident Pre-K-er!

Who is silly

Curious (like a little..oh, wait, sorry…BIG monkey!)

With a definate set of preferences…

 and Spongebob, Dinosaurs…and all sorts of other “Big boy” things-

Who is an animal lover

A musician

a flirt (note the 2 girls…)

and an all around, class A, super duper kid 🙂

Who, before I know it, will be begging me to let him go further than I really want him to go…

and he’ll want to explore the world wider than our backyard…or our front yard for that matter.

but for now…

I love you…

Ok..Now, I’m just irritated.

As Isaac’s birthday gets closer, the Outlaws become more and more…shall I say…DESPERATE.

They’re pulling their usual one-upsmanship. They find out that my ‘rents are doing something super cool and nice…and they have to attempt to top them, in a desperate attempt to make Isaac love them.

 

So, today, we get an overnighted postal envelope addied to Isaac. After yesterday’s debacle, I didn’t want the little guy disappointed again with something completely innapropriate, so while he was taking his daily “break” (we can’t call it rest or nap. That will set off hissy fits…), I tore into the envelope. Inside was a padded envelope addied to the Monkey again…and inside that envelope were 2 more envelopes. (Does anyone get the image of the old box in a box in a box trick that we all used to pull on our friends? No? Sorry. My brain running on…I just remember someone doing it to another friend of mine…but we won’t go there.).

So, I break into the first envelope, and it was the obligatory mushy card (completely adult card…not for a 4 year old) and inside was an internet receipt for brand spanking new NASCAR bedding for the Monkey! Cool! And the note we’ve been waiting for since oh, last year…or even 2 years ago…the go ahead to go and pick out a new twin bed (of our choosing-not their desert meets faux hunting lodge taste) for Monkey.

Ok. So far, so good.

 

Here’s where they lose all sorts of points…

 

We open up the 2nd card, and it’s cute. It’s Nemo…ok, we can deal with that so far…

Inside, is a gift card to pet smart…and the following…and this is exact wording…

Take this and get a fish tank-the set up and fish! Get it home, set it up, and enjoy your new pets!

What? You’re kidding me…right? Really…you have GOT to be kidding me. 2 cats and 2 frogs aren’t enough for me to take care of? You mean you actually want me to add a fish tank into the mix here? Oh, wait…DID YOU EVEN FREAKIN ASK ME???

Aren’t gifts of pets supposed to be approved by the parent, especially the parent of a child who is turning 4?

And what’s really sad was I thought it was a decent gift until what was written really sunk in, and I went and checked the balance on the gift card…

And now, the more I think about it, the angrier and angrier I get. This is damn presumptuous…totally presumptuous. They assume we WANT a fish tank…with 2 cats rolling around the house…and that I really want another water-based pet…and they also assumed (as we found out) that the fish tank that they so desperately wanted him to have would be housed IN HIS ROOM.

Yes, you all read that right…IN THE BEDROOM OF A HIGHLY IMPULSIVE, HIGHLY DISTRACTABLE, CONSTANT MOTION 4 YEAR OLD.

Can we say carpet flood anyone?

 

I swear…they are bound and determined to be the death of me. I swear, they’ve never gotten over the fact that when they asked when Isaac could have a gerbil, my response was “Never.”

 

So, let’s recap the last 2 days of gifts…

1 infant gift sent by Princess Pretendtocare

1 unwanted pet gift (thank goodness it’s a gift card…but the point remains…we were supposed to get animals with this sucker!) sent by Vapid and Colostomy!

Delusional. Delusional, I tell you!

There is something to be said for not having any kids, and attempting to buy presents for family member’s children. There is also something to be said for knowing age, and knowing basically what a child can do at that age. There is definately something to be said for having the brain power to pick up the phone and call and see what the child is into if you have no clue about what a child of oh, say 4, would like.

So, what brings this tirade on?

Simple.

Princess Pretendtocare, in a seriously misguided attempt to get back into Isaac’s life after ignoring him for oh, almost 2 years, because we told her where to take her delusional behavior (see previous posts on her. It’s just not worth rehashing here. She’s a peice of work, just like her parents.), sent Isaac a birthday present.

 

Wanna see what she sent?

You can’t believe that either, huh.

Well, just so you can believe your eyes are fine, here’s another shot of the stuff…

Did I mention the ball rattles?

Good everloving Lord.

My child will be 4 on Saturday. 4. Not 1, not 2…4. (Anyone else having visions of the Monty Python Holy Hand Grenade speech? No? Ok. Sorry.)

Let’s have a close up of the pins…

Note how…non pre-K these suckers are. You’d find these in an INFANT room!!! Geez Louise!

Now, Princess Pretendtocare has called here recently. She’s only called to profess her undying love for Doug…which we all see through. Her small talk-as the rest of the outlaws do the same thing…because they’re STUPID and can’t use a simple weather.com search…”What’s the weather?”

NOT any of the following list

• So, what’s Isaac into these days?
• What size does Isaac wear? Are there any types of clothes you don’t allow him to wear?
• What shows does he like?
• Does he like sports?
• what would he need for his birthday?
• What would be a good present for him?

yeah. Any of those would be appropriate. But does she ask them? NOPE. Just a straight delusional, innapropriate gift.

I’m floored and flabbergasted. How can anyone think that this is appropriate for a 4 year old who got a SCOOTER for his birthday this year…and can sing all of the songs on They Might be Giants “Here come the ABC’s” and knows Speed Racer (and got a Mach 5 today!! That’s another post…) !!

 

Please, someone. Beat some sense into her for me. I’m at a loss for what to do…and even wondering if this was a basement gift…a la her ‘rents style..(remember the tissues? Remember the stuff that was sent for Christmas out of their basement??)

 

ARGH.