not quite two years

Okay, it has been almost a year. Bob is Seven years old now. He is an avid reader. He is still, of course, addicted to trains. Since Jim is also addicted to trains, it is a good match. I love that kid so much. I should. After all, I am his mom. Most of the time he is a good kid (like most children). He has some issues when his ADHD kicks in.

He and Jim are in NY right now. They were planning on going to the Speedie Fest, but mother nature had other plans - rain. Hopefully they will get to go in the morning and not be too deterred by too much rain.

Will try to keep up with this blog, but it is a challenging task.

Hi

Yes, I am horrible, I haven't updated this in years. In fact, I forgot about it. My Bob kid is now six years old. He will start second grade on Monday. He keeps me busy and he keeps his daddy busy.

All those visits to the developmental pediatrician in Phoenix determined that he is "at risk for autism" and "at risk for ADHD". Well, there is no doubt - he has ADHD. He probably is on the autism spectrum - Asperger's , but since he gets so many services in school, I am not worrying about that label.

Getting Bob to eat his lunch in school has been a challenge. I did put money in an account for him at school so he can get school lunches when he wants them. Thursday is pizza day - they have Pizza Hut pizza - so he will get school lunch on Thursday. I remember when I went to PS 91, lunch was $0.65 a day and $3.25 a week. Bob's school lunch is $3.25 a day. I think it is ridiculous the amount of money they charge for lunch for the tiny amount of food they get. A half-pint of milk costs $0.75 - a half-pint of milk is cheaper at the seven-eleven. According to public websites, only one percent of the students in Bob's school are eligible for free or reduced lunches, so the school is making a lot of money off of the lunch program. And they don't even cook it there. It is cooked off-site and delivered while still hot (supposedly).

Bob has been challenging. He is behind his peers socially/developmentally. I wish the school here would of let us keep him back a year, but since he was in the special ed program, it is cheaper to send him to kindergarten than to keep him in preschool another year. That is why he is going into the second grade instead of the first grade now.

He lost his first tooth this week. He is really turning into a big kid. He loves to read. He still loves trains. He loves to play with his toy trains.

Bob still flaps his arms and jumps up and down. I watched a movie with him. By the end of the movie Bob was covered in sweat. He was jumping up and down and flapping his arms so much that he actually worked up a really decent sweat.

Going to try to get some sleep. Will post more when I remember. Hopefully it won't be another two years.

Update

It has occurred to me that it has been three months since I updated this blog. I guess it is about time I updated it.
Bob and Jim went to NY for Christmas. I was the low man on the totem pole, so I could not get off to go to NY for Christmas. I was, however, able to spend a four day weekend in NY over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. It was nice, I had a good time, but it was way too short a period of time. I hope to get back to NY during the month of July. The Afton Fair is going to be July 8th to the 13th. I am going to try and be there during that week, but pretty much everyone tries to go on vacation in the months of June, July, and August - the hottest months of the year. Maybe I will get lucky.

This year has been a circle of Bob being sick, then Jim and I being sick, then Bob being sick, then Jim and I being sick, etc... Right now Bob is healthy - Jim and I are sick. I have laryngitis, which is not very fun for someone who likes to talk as much as I do.

I have to work on Easter Sunday. We are going to celebrate Easter on Saturday. One of our neighbors is going to come over with their children. It should be fun. I have not, however, been able to find a fresh ham - I think I am going to have to settle for the standard pre-cooked variety. I think it was Wegmans that had fresh ham every Christmas and Easter - the kind that doesn't have added salt or nitrates or anything else - just plain pork. I have gone to multiple stores, and I have not found anyone that sells fresh ham in the Phoenix area.

Jim is happy because I finally found his jelly beans. Just Born brand jelly beans are his favorite kind of jelly bean. We were not able to find them last year. Chuck brought several bags of jelly beans to us when he came out here in his big truck (Bob remembers it) last year. I still could not find Jim's jelly beans this year. However, when I was at Walgreen's, I noticed a bag of Mike and Ike brand Jelly beans. The wheels in my head turned -- Just Born makes Mike and Ike. I picked up the bag and saw they looked just like Jim's favorite jelly beans. I brought some home - and lo and behold, they were the same. Thus, Jim has his jelly beans.

We are trying to get Bob in the habit of not wasting water. I explained to him that once water goes down the drain, it is dirty and we cannot drink it anymore. If we are not careful, we will use up all of the water and when we turn on the faucet, nothing will come out - Then, what will we drink? His response - Lemonade!!!

Bob had his picture taken at school again on Thursday. We thankfully will get to preview the picture before we buy it. The last picture we had to order the package sight unseen, and the picture was awful - complete with Bob sticking out his tongue partway.

On Saturday, there will be an Easter egg hunt at a grocery store down the block. The Easter Bunny will be there as well - for pictures. Bob should have fun. Our neighbors will be there as well. (The ones who are coming over Saturday night for dinner) I will have to post a picture of Bob with the Easter Bunny.

It is getting late and I have to work tomorrow. I hope everyone is doing well. Hopefully I will be posting a picture of Bob with the Easter Bunny next week.

Bob's visit with Santa

We went to see Santa today. Bob was excited the whole time we were on line. He kept on talking about what he was going to ask Santa for. When it was our turn, it was like a scene from A Christmas Story. Bob stood there with his jaw dropped in awe. The only thing he could say was "You're Santa?!!" We had to cue him to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. Then we asked Santa if he could come a couple of days early so he could celebrate Christmas with Mommy and Daddy here if Phoenix before he and Daddy left for New York. Santa said that he could arrange that.

We are going to do what would have been a mortal sin ten years ago. We are going to celebrate Christmas on my birthday. But, I am going to have a birthday cake, and it is not going to have poinsettias on it.

Bob announced that Santa should get Q a new collar for Christmas. Needless to say, I am going to have to shop around for a new collar for Q from Santa. The one he is wearing is a couple of years old now. It was reflective at one point in time. So far, the only pet store I have gone to was the one in the mall where Bob saw Santa. The only collars they had there all have rhinestones in them. Needless to say, I am not going to put a rhinestone collar on my dog.

I hope everyone is in good health and having a happy holiday!!

Bob's cold - shared

Bob did share his cold with us. Jim and I went to a walk-in/ urgent care center together. It was a romantic date. We each received prescriptions for Augmentin. Needless to say, we have his and her bottles of Augmentin. Romantic huh? I have been sick for a week and a half and Jim has been sick for two weeks. We better start getting better in the next day or two.

Bob announced that he wanted to go to school today. And I would have sent him to school if he had school. He is feeling much better. He will go back to school on Monday.

I am very sad, but I will be unable to go to NY for Christmas. Jim and Bob will have a Merry Christmas without me. I will probably work on Christmas day to keep my mind off of the fact that it is Christmas.

Bob's cold

I finally took Bob to the doctor. He said his ears hurt and he needed to go to the doctor so he could look at them. He had not really been running a fever. Although the other night after I gave him Motrin for an earache, he woke up an hour later covered in sweat. Needless to say the pediatrician said Bob has sinusitis - something I hoped he would be spared - mommy's sinuses. He started on an antibiotic. Hopefully he will be feeling better in a couple of days.

I am going to try and get to sleep early. Bob did share his illness with me. And I haven't been sleeping because I hear his coughing on the baby monitor and it wakes me up.
I will keep all of you updated.

cute Bob stuff

I am running out of titles for blog's, so forgive the unoriginal title. But even though Bob has not been feeling good, he has been coming out with lots of cute phrases.
Jim went to the dentist for part 2 of his root canal. Before we left, I explained to Bob that the dentist had to finish fixing daddy's teeth. When we got to the dentist's office, Bob told everyone that walked into the office that the dentist did not do a good job fixing daddy's teeth so we had to come back.

We also watched The Polar Express. I thought Bob would LOVE that movie because it is all about a choo choo train. There is one scene that the little boy looses the little girl's ticket and you see the ticket blowing away. Bob was in full blown tears because he lost the ticket. The ticket finds itself back on the train, but Bob was VERY upset by that point and required rocking and cuddling. I am glad we didn't spend $50 at the IMAX theater to see that movie. I am sure we would of wound up leaving the theater at that point with a waste of $50. When it was over, Bob said that we had to bring the movie back to Costco because it was too scary. Maybe Bob will like that movie next year.

When we were at Costco, I was talking to some woman - small talk about the weather, etc... Bob then asks that woman if she had a grandma Mazie. It was really adorable. Grandma Mazie had sent Bob a Christmas card with stickers, which was a wonderful thing, so he had to tell everyone about Grandma Mazie.

Bob did, however, share his cold with all of us. We kept him home from school on Thursday. He woke up and did not feel good. He crawled into bed next to me right at about nine AM - right when I fell asleep. Every time I dozed off, he kicked me awake. I was thankful when he decided he wanted to wake up, go by daddy, and watch Clifford. I had to work Thursday night.

Tomorrow I will thankfully start on my regular schedule. I will be 11 AM to 11 PM - an "off-shifter". I come in at the same time as two more providers arrive (MD, PA, or NP), so they can open more beds. What is nice is we do "team nursing". A nurse is not assigned specific rooms, rather a group of nurses are assigned a group of rooms and everyone takes care of the patients in those rooms. This way if a nurse is busy with one critical patient, the other nurses will take care of the other patients. I know that when I did clinical for paramedic class, if a nurse was busy with one patient, her other patients were neglected because no one would take care of a patient if it wasn't their patient. With that system, it takes longer for pain to be relieved, orders to be carried out, and patients to be discharged. You turn patients around a lot faster if everyone works together. It is pretty nice.

Bob and Q are currently lying on the floor next to me, next to each other. Bob even put a blanket over Q. I should get going so I can rescue Q.
Merry Christmas everyone.