The Po Show

The Last Day of Summer

I know it's not really the last day of summer. It's the last day of "my" summer, the Summer of Po, that two and a half week interim period during which both of my kids were occupied with all-day activities. It hasn't exactly been relaxing, since I've spent most of the time preparing and executing my ebaying of last year's fall/winter clothing, plus physical therapy, plus other injury-related appointments and running around and stressing out. But it's certainly been nice to be able to do all that kid-free, and next week's physical therapy appointments and my MRI and my orthopedist appointment will be much more difficult with Tessa in tow. And it's nice, of course, to be sitting here in quiet at the moment, without the sounds of the TV or video games or general chatter.

I should be having another appointment next week, but it's not going to happen. My ortho referred me to the spine specialist in their practice, since my neck MRI looked so bad. On Wed. I called to try to make an appointment, but was told he didn't have anything open till the second week of Sept. The receptionist said that he has two other offices in CT (I don't know what the deal is with doctors around here, but every one I've ever seen has had at least three different practices, usually in at least two different states, which just doesn't seem very practical), so maybe they could get me in to see him sooner. Stamford, CT is only about 17 miles from here, so I called there. After a bunch of calls back and forth, with them trying to schedule me during four different evenings (including the two evenings that Tessa was having her camp performances), they said that they would try to squeeze me in that night at 6:15. Rush hour traffic on the I95 is bad. Ross managed to get out of work early to stay with the kids and I got him home and was on the road by 5:20. I got to the doctor's office precisely at 6:15. Then I proceeded to wait till 7:30 before I got to see the doctor. He was very nice, and it was super nice of him to see me (he said he was missing a dinner with some people and his wife had already called twice, but he hadn't really wanted to go and thus didn't mind having the excuse of needing to see patients :)). He said that he was recommending an epidural injection into my neck to help with the pain and numbness, and that the only time he could do it was this Mon. at the surgery center in Wilton, CT. This all sounded fine, though I would have to take Tessa with me, until he said that I would need someone to drive me after the procedure.

Screeching halt. Ross is leaving for DC on Mon. morning and cannot get out of it. THIS is one of those times when it really, really sucks to have no family and no close friends here. The one friend I feel like I could ask (and she's a friend from our UCLA days) has 3 kids and is moving to London in a couple of weeks, so how could I ask her to drive me all the way up to CT and then sit there with her 3 kids and Tessa for 2+ hours? And the other two people I possibly could have asked (though probably not, since they have small children too) are both out of the country. It's about 35 miles away, so a taxi would cost like $200 both ways.

So. No epidural for me. It was also terribly embarrassing to have to cancel the appointment, since the doctor (who is leaving in a week for a long trip, which is why there were so few scheduling options) was nice enough to try and squeeze me in. Terrible to have to admit to people that you have no one nearby who can help.

Sigh, this post started out about the summer, my summer, but ended up about the general state of our lives.

Second Grade Recap

I'm cleaning out the corner of the dining room that houses the overflowing bin of artwork and other school-created memorabilia that the kids bring home. For years now I've just been tossing more and more things into the bin, or letting Tessa add more things to the bin. I do try and determine what "deserves" to be saved, since if I kept every scrap of paper that Tessa brought home from school, or created here at home, we would have been forced out onto the curb long, long ago. I do this culling surreptitiously, for Tessa is very attached to all of her creations, and more than once I have been busted when she found some masterpiece in the recycling.

But today I decided that I had to clear out the bin and put things into the kids' file boxes, which house the treasures deemed untossable, that must be kept for posterity. As I started, though, I realized that I first had to cull Tessa's file box a bit, because there are things in there that seemed to make the cut back in preschool, but now really are recognizable as lesser-tier.

But anyway, I found her writer's notebook from this past school year. The last entry is entitled "Second Grade Memories" and definitely deserves to be immortalized here on my blog:

"I had a great second grade. I had butterflies in my stomach on the first day. My class and I took many trips. My favorite was Seussical. I made a lot of new friends. My class and I were even parents! Our children were mealworms, which turned into darkling beetles. Sofia and I were partners. My class also wrote writing pieces. My favorite was the all-abouts. I wrote All About Prairie Dogs. I had a great school year and I hope next year is great, too."

See, I would have never remembered that they raised darkling beetles in second grade, and that apparently some of them were my grandchildren. Memorabilia is bulky, but irreplaceable.

It's Not Easy Being Tessa

Last night as I was tucking Tessa into bed, she said, "Yeah Mom, the hardest thing about trying to go to sleep is trying not to think about all my NEGATIVE THOUGHTS." I sort of gasped and cracked up, so she repeated, "Yeah, it's my negative thoughts that make going to sleep hard sometimes."

I have to add that she generally is asleep within two minutes of me turning out her lights, so I guess in relative terms, her negative thoughts are not that much of a sleep deterrent.

Full Scale Summer

This summer has been and will be very differently spaced out than any other summer we have ever had (and not spaced out in the way I am without adequate caffeine). Tessa started Music and Art camp at the Westchester Conservatory on the first Monday after school ended (SO adorable to see her play her little half-sized violin!). Matthew had almost 2 weeks off before his summer session at school started, which was the day before yesterday. Now they are both occupied for 2 1/2 weeks, until Tessa's camp ends. After 2 weeks of Tessa being home, during which Matthew continues school, we leave for a month in CA. The only problem we are experiencing with this period of activity overlap is that Matthew's bus has not been picking him up till almost 9:00 (9:05 the first day) and Tessa is supposed to be at camp by 9:00. She is done at 3:30, but Matthew's bus drops him off at that time, so I have had to pick her up early. The first day, as we pulled out of the lot, I saw Matthew's bus drive by. We had to rush to catch up to it so that it wouldn't beat us home! If this was a "normal" bus it would be no problem, but I'm required to be there when he is picked up and dropped off.

This is the first summer that I have had both kids involved in an activity at the same time. These first couple of days have been so busy that I haven't had much time to relish the time (and I should be keeping this post short so I can run out the door again), but I am feeling real relief to have some breathing space this summer. Most of this time will be spent in ebay listing hysteria, but it's great that I have the chance to be alone in the house to get that all prepped.

Oh, and I cannot tell you how happy and excited Matthew was to go back to school for summer session! It's an absolute fricking miracle, considering how desperately unhappy he was at the prospect of year-round school. Looking back, I think that had a lot to do with my reluctance to send him to the school, that he was so freaked out and upset about having to go to school during the summer (and his reaction during the interview to the idea). But this last Tuesday we went for his individual orientation and his teachers talked about all the great stuff they were going to be doing, and he was thrilled. They will be swimming at least twice a week, riding bikes (brand new bikes the school just purchased), going on trips to see movies and to a indoor sports center, having parties (including his school birthday party, which the school completely pays for, INCLUDING a gift!), and doing work study (which involves working in the school store, which stocks school supplies and snacks and stuff, for which the kids are actually paid cash money!). He was practically giddy with excitement that night, in anticipation of starting summer school.

All in all, a stellar summer so far.

Once Again

I hate to sound like a broken record (actually I am thrilled to be sounding like a broken record in *this* instance), but this year beats the hell out of last year. Today is my birthday (thank you, thank you very much). On my birthday *last* year, we had to go to an interview at the first day treatment program we visited. I was all stressed out, trying to find the place, worrying about how to deal with the timing of picking up Ross at a train station near the campus. I was stressed out in general, with the whole "we have to find a placement for Matthew and it's SUMMER and we're leaving for CA next week" situation.

So we had both kids in tow, and no one was expecting us. We waited for the director, who was in another meeting, for almost an hour. When we finally did see him, he had no idea who we were, had not seen Matthew's file, could only tell us that there were no spaces available for next year. He tried his best to give us an introduction to the place, and when Matthew heard that it was a year-round program, with a summer session, he flipped out and started banging his head. We got him together enough to go on a brief tour of the campus, which was quite nice, but it was all a bizarre and upsetting experience. Afterwards, Ross asked me where I wanted to go for my birthday dinner (woohoo, let's party now!) and we ended up going to Cheesecake Factory and it was very nice, but I was so emotionally drained.

My birthday this year was much nicer. Tessa went to art and music camp, which she is loving (it's just too adorable to see her playing "Hot Cross Buns" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on her half-size violin), so Matthew and I were alone for most of the day. We went to the library and to the mall, had lunch and frozen yogurt, and went grocery shopping. I received a TON of lovely birthday wishes via Facebook and email, including an ecard from my sister that featured a dog that was shocked when the question "How old ARE you?" came up on the screen :D. Tessa came home and disappeared into her room, where she proceeded to make me THREE sets of cards and gifts (each in a shoe box, and I was supposed to choose one :)). Ross came home early, bearing flowers, and I had a brownie with a candle in it so they could sing Happy Birthday to me. I received a beautiful black dress and three pairs of wool socks (I had been saying that most of my wool socks were shot, so he found some SmartWool socks on sale at Nordstrom Rack :)). My sister called and I had a nice long talk with her. Now I'm having birthday cocktails (acai juice and vodka, because you know that as you get older, you need a lot more antioxidants :D). So all in all, a lovely birthday indeed.

Oh, and we found out that we totally dodged a bullet with that other day treatment program. We were talking to the parents of a girl who had gone there for a year (till they pulled her out and managed to get her placed in Matthew's school) and it would have been completely, disastrously wrong for him. Apparently the staff there is great, but the student population is very tough, to put it mildly, and Matthew would have gotten eaten alive there.

So there, more this year goodness.