A couple of weeks ago, The Wife and I were discussing what we would do when our lease is up at the end of September 2014. The following scenarios were determined to be brilliant ideas (in the span of about 24 hours):
1. Move to a smaller house/apartment and save for our eventual move to Seattle in a few years (where we'd both like to end up)
2. Move to Costa Rica (we'd have to learn Spanish and they have a lot of laws/rules that you have to follow if you aren't from there)
3. Move to Seattle immediately upon the end of our lease (having no jobs and no money saved... good plan)
4. Maybe Costa Rica could work
5. Move to Kentucky (The Wife's company has an office there)
6. Maybe we should just stay here for now and decide later, but not stay as long as #1 would mean
7. Move to Idaho or Washington (The Wife's company has an office that she could work out of and we'd be that much closer to Seattle for weekend trips or whatever)
The moral of the story is that we change our minds a lot. The main idea is that we want to raise our child(ren) in a different part of the country than we live in now. We have a plan in place and are super excited for that lease to run out. Until then, we'll have plenty of time to save and prepare for our eventual move... to somewhere.
9.1.13
Monthly Meeting #5
Our monthly meeting with the agency workers was last night. Gloria and Lisa were there... Elaine was nowhere to be found... obviously. Essentially, not a whole lot has changed with the case for Leonard and Penny. The next court date is the first week of February, so maybe we'll know something then. Gloria informed us today that the case plans have been scheduled for the week after next for each of the parents, but we aren't entirely sure what that means for the kids or for us. Our best guess is that it means they will be informed of their case plans, disagree with what they're told, argue the points and set the whole case back about three months. That seems to be the trend so far at least. Things are basically at a standstill for now, but our monthly meetings at least allow us for a little bit of time to trade stories about what we think is going on. We get to inform Lisa of the ridiculous requests that the parents make that Gloria relays to us during the month between meetings and I think she finds it quite entertaining. I don't really remember anything else that we talked about right now, but there could very well be a part two to this post later.
98%
Leonard is basically potty trained. There are still occasional accidents, but other
than a diaper at night, it’s a go. He is
a LONG way from being trusted to not pee all over himself and the bed for 10-12
hours a night. Once the daycare moved
him from the two year old room to the three year old preschool room, things
took quite a turn for the better. He isn’t
getting babied in that room and is just another kid in the fray. There’s no special treatment like he was
getting in the younger room. In addition
to the older kids being a good influence, having him clean his own underwear
when he gets home every day probably didn’t hurt the effort. It’s just a great relief to not have to
change a diaper or even really buy diapers anymore… we can buy a small package
and it last for over two weeks.
Accidents happen and we’ll deal with them as they come, but overall…
this was a very quick success.
Baby Update
Yesterday we got to hear the heartbeat of the baby. The Wife has been a nervous wreck, but has made
it to the second trimester and all is well.
The appointment wasn’t as fun and awesome as it could have been since
her doctor was on call at the hospital and clearly in a rush, but the important
thing was that we got to hear it. It’s
getting more real and this weekend, we’re starting the process of flipping the
bedrooms. The Kid will be moved to the
smaller room that Leonard and Penny currently share, while they move to The Kid’s
room. That way, when the two little ones
go back to their mom and/or dad, we can turn that room into the nursery and it
will be plenty big for all of the necessary baby things. We didn’t get any indication that we’d be
having the next ultrasound before the 20 week mark, so that was kind of a letdown,
since we’d really like to know what kind of baby we’re having… but we’ll
survive.
8.1.13
He's Leaving
Not on a jet plane, but he's leaving all the same.
I got a call from Elaine, Oscar's original caseworker who just returned from maternity leave, to say that his grandparents were approved for something with some letters that I don't remember right now. Whatever it was, it means that Oscar can go live with them now. We have arranged for them to come pick him up this week after we get home from work one night, so we spent a little while last night going through his things and making sure we had everything ready to send with him. After seeing it all again, we are quite certain that he won't be needing any clothes for the next several months.
The entire thing is still a surprise to us. After the last court hearing, it sounded like there wouldn't be any decisions made until at least February, but apparently that was about as far from reality as possible. We are 100% sure that Oscar's time in foster care will come to an end on Thursday and that he will never be back in the system. His grandparents are such kind, loving people and are over the moon excited for him to be with them full time. We were going to meet this weekend to make the switch, but his grandma said that they wanted him as soon as possible... so Thursday is the day.
I got a call from Elaine, Oscar's original caseworker who just returned from maternity leave, to say that his grandparents were approved for something with some letters that I don't remember right now. Whatever it was, it means that Oscar can go live with them now. We have arranged for them to come pick him up this week after we get home from work one night, so we spent a little while last night going through his things and making sure we had everything ready to send with him. After seeing it all again, we are quite certain that he won't be needing any clothes for the next several months.
The entire thing is still a surprise to us. After the last court hearing, it sounded like there wouldn't be any decisions made until at least February, but apparently that was about as far from reality as possible. We are 100% sure that Oscar's time in foster care will come to an end on Thursday and that he will never be back in the system. His grandparents are such kind, loving people and are over the moon excited for him to be with them full time. We were going to meet this weekend to make the switch, but his grandma said that they wanted him as soon as possible... so Thursday is the day.
4.1.13
LUDICROUS SPEED! GO!
Leonard and Penny's parents are something else. I know I've documented these things before with the food and such. In the last week, Gloria has relayed a few things to me from the parents, or at least their dad. He wanted to know if they were taking any vitamins, so I told Gloria that they just took regular vitamins for kids... Flintstones or whatever was available. Gloria then said, through just a hint of snark, "Well, he said something about fish oils or omega something or other"... I'm pretty sure she assured him that they were getting vitamins of some kind. In the same conversation, I learned that their dad also wanted to know "why Penny isn't in preschool"... again, Gloria was kind enough to take this one on her own. She went on the daycare's website and printed off all of the information they had available and gave it to him. Not only did Penny move from the preschool to the Pre-K classroom about three months ago, but Leonard moved from the two year old room to the preschool classroom right after Thanksgiving. So yeah... school is taken care of.
When Gloria called their parents to cancel visits for today, due to their illness, their dad once again questioned it. He wanted to know if they had been to the doctor, what the doctor said and if they were on any medications. She let him know that we had not been to the doctor yet, but that we were on our way there at the time.
All of the recent questions have come on the heels of being asked four days before Christmas if they had been taken to see Santa, at the location they go to every year. If we hadn't been, it was requested that we take them. Obviously we didn't have to take them, but we obliged and took them, since it was apparently a family tradition that they had and we didn't have anything else going on that weekend.
While these are mostly benign questions and requests, we've had the random things such as a request for a Lyme's Disease test and bags and bags of socks that have been sent from visits, that were just so far out there, it really makes us wonder about the mental stability of both parents. I suppose they're just trying to be parents and do and say things that seem like something a parent would care about, but the timing of some things are just a little off.
When Gloria called their parents to cancel visits for today, due to their illness, their dad once again questioned it. He wanted to know if they had been to the doctor, what the doctor said and if they were on any medications. She let him know that we had not been to the doctor yet, but that we were on our way there at the time.
All of the recent questions have come on the heels of being asked four days before Christmas if they had been taken to see Santa, at the location they go to every year. If we hadn't been, it was requested that we take them. Obviously we didn't have to take them, but we obliged and took them, since it was apparently a family tradition that they had and we didn't have anything else going on that weekend.
While these are mostly benign questions and requests, we've had the random things such as a request for a Lyme's Disease test and bags and bags of socks that have been sent from visits, that were just so far out there, it really makes us wonder about the mental stability of both parents. I suppose they're just trying to be parents and do and say things that seem like something a parent would care about, but the timing of some things are just a little off.
A Plague On Our Only House
I'd like to say both of our houses... but we only have the one.
This one started on Wednesday afternoon. I got a call from daycare at about 3:40pm to let me know that Penny had a temperature of 100.4°. I asked what that meant, because the daycare director never told me that I needed to come get her. She said that, as long as the temperature was under 101°, Penny would be able to stay. I got off the phone with her and began the eighty minutes of hoping to not get another call. It worked out and when I got to daycare after work, Penny was a little less than her normal cheerful self, but that also happens when she's really tired. Before bed, I gave her a dose of Children's Tylenol and called it a night. When we got up on Thursday morning, I fully expected to find two kids with temperatures of about 102°. Luckily, hers had dropped into the 99s and his was completely normal.
The dreaded phone call came at noon. Penny was great, but Leonard had thrown up and had a temperature of 102°, which I later found out was taken after he threw up. But whatever... he had to leave either way. I called the doctor on the way to get them and found out that the appointments for the afternoon were all booked, but I was welcome to bring them to the walk-in clinic that would be open until 7pm. On that phone call, I learned that the current waiting time was about two hours. Better than the emergency room (even though it wasn't an emergency), but less than ideal all the same. When we got to the office, about a 45 minute venture, including coming home for their insurance and medical stuff, it was up to a three hour wait. Luckily, she can sit still and he was still very groggy from being woken from his nap. We ended up waiting about an hour and a half, which considering what we were told, wasn't bad at all. As long as it wasn't the flu, we were going to call any diagnosis a win for our side.
It turns out, after the doctor examined both of them, that she suspected strep for Penny and strep with the added bonus of an ear infection for Leonard. They were both given prescriptions to be filled, with his being the stronger of the two, since he had more ailments that needed curing.
This one started on Wednesday afternoon. I got a call from daycare at about 3:40pm to let me know that Penny had a temperature of 100.4°. I asked what that meant, because the daycare director never told me that I needed to come get her. She said that, as long as the temperature was under 101°, Penny would be able to stay. I got off the phone with her and began the eighty minutes of hoping to not get another call. It worked out and when I got to daycare after work, Penny was a little less than her normal cheerful self, but that also happens when she's really tired. Before bed, I gave her a dose of Children's Tylenol and called it a night. When we got up on Thursday morning, I fully expected to find two kids with temperatures of about 102°. Luckily, hers had dropped into the 99s and his was completely normal.
The dreaded phone call came at noon. Penny was great, but Leonard had thrown up and had a temperature of 102°, which I later found out was taken after he threw up. But whatever... he had to leave either way. I called the doctor on the way to get them and found out that the appointments for the afternoon were all booked, but I was welcome to bring them to the walk-in clinic that would be open until 7pm. On that phone call, I learned that the current waiting time was about two hours. Better than the emergency room (even though it wasn't an emergency), but less than ideal all the same. When we got to the office, about a 45 minute venture, including coming home for their insurance and medical stuff, it was up to a three hour wait. Luckily, she can sit still and he was still very groggy from being woken from his nap. We ended up waiting about an hour and a half, which considering what we were told, wasn't bad at all. As long as it wasn't the flu, we were going to call any diagnosis a win for our side.
It turns out, after the doctor examined both of them, that she suspected strep for Penny and strep with the added bonus of an ear infection for Leonard. They were both given prescriptions to be filled, with his being the stronger of the two, since he had more ailments that needed curing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)