Catching Up

I have a bet going with BD that I can get this post done in 30 minutes. I'll do my best.

Ever since Tricia posted about a great deal on diapers, I've been following Never Pay Retain Again. I've been slacking on my bargain hunting lately, so I got really excited when I saw a post about a promotion at Safeway on Friday. I ended up going twice. The second time was at midnight and I walked away with the following stash for $7.77 and $12 towards my next shopping trip. So I actually made money. Woohoo! I love stuff like that.


Since I spent the wee hours in the grocery store and was so amped I couldn't sleep and then passed out on the couch, I woke up tired on Saturday morning. Which was not ideal since we had a full day planned.

First, I went to kickboxing. Go me. I'm still struggling after skipping the past month.

Then, I took Playette to a Month of the Military Child celebration. There were bounce houses, face painting, bubbles, balloons, and a band. Playette was digging the music. Those girls were impressive (and cute!).

The idea was that I would take her for an hour, come home for her nap, and then head to the evaluation.

That never happened.

Shoot, we spent at least 30 minutes just eating pizza!

It was very worthwhile for other reasons though. There were representatives there from all kinds of organizations that support children so I had the opportunity to speak with someone from Easter Seals as well as a nutritionist from WIC who gave me some tips that may help in increasing Playette's weight which has been plateaued for the last 6+ months (ugh).

Amazingly, with only the car ride time to sleep, Playette did quite well during the eval. I was prepared for a meltdown.

We got started a little late and I was totally on the defensive, but eventually the walls came down and I even apologized to everyone I was throwing shade to since I walked in the door at the end.

The best thing was that I got to speak at length with the center director. She knows Playette since we go there for ST, but since she doesn't work with her regularly, I was able to get a fresh point of view that I could appreciate since she wasn't a stranger and I didn't have to start our story from scratch. The best news is that apparently our Regional Center has just entered a contract with this place and we're now going to work on seeing if Playette can participate in their program on a more regular basis. We could never afford it on our own. We're talking 3 hours/day, 5 days/week for $1500/month.

I almost fell out my chair just typing that.

Add in the fact that we'd still have to take her to daycare and pay for that in full since 3 hours a day just isn't going to cut it with our schedules.

But I like what they're doing there, so I've got my fingers crossed that we can at least get her in for a couple of days a month.

Today, we got up and went to Parents as Teachers, which was great as usual. Playette was all over the room and into everything. She loves it and I'm glad that I have the opportunity to take her to a class with other parents and kids this coming Wednesday.

I'm so, so tired thogh...and tomorrow's the first day that I have to be at work 30 minutes earlier than I have been (doing this will allow me to have every other Wednesday off).

I don't feel like I'm doing what happened this weekend any justice right now so I'll try to elaborate a little more in my next post.

It's all basically related to the IFSP meeting from last week. I need to write a proposal, requesting the types of services that we want to have in place for Playette. I don't want more of the same because I feel like it's pointless, among other things.

That meeting was just a colossal waste of time and instead of sitting in a room and being read to (again) by a group of people that are so being the times it's not even funny and being told what our child can't do even when she really can? Eh. Enough of that. Consider it a lesson learned.

We all know that we're the best advocates for our kids, whatever their needs may be, but sometimes it takes it being put in your face for you to realize that no matter how tired, deflated, emotional, or inexperienced you are, there comes a time when you have to step up and make your presence known. I thought I was doing an ok job up until now. Walking into an IFSP meeting with this particular group of folks and assuming that all is going to go well if we allow them to take the lead simply cannot happen. And it won't. Ever again. This is one area where I can't let laziness take over.

Ok, so that took me 59 minutes. Bah!

I have no idea how that happened.

Sleepy time.