Wordless Wednesday

Matching Cars PJs to sit and watch the Cars movie on DVD
The Workaholic took them to see Cars 2 on Sunday. Boys gave it Thumbs Up!

Checkers is still getting the royal treatment after his 4 week
adventure to parts unknown.

Lamb Cutlets - Nom nom nom!

I'm joining in with My Little Drummer Boys & faith hope and a whole lotta love for Wordless Wednesday.

Thanks for dropping by.

Today was a good day!

There are so many possibilities for a day to be a good one.

There are days that are good right from the moment you open your eyes.

There are days that are average and then suddenly something so great happens it becomes an instant good day.

There are days that seem really mundane and appear to have no chance of improving then at the end of the day you realise that it turned out to in fact, be a really good day.

Today was one of these.


On the surface it seemed like a routine Tuesday.  I am on the tail end of the flu, and I mean the flu, not some wimpy Man-Cold, I've been bed ridden for a couple of days with full blown fevers, headache, earache, blocked but still dripping at the same time swollen nose and every muscle aching.  So any kind of obligation other than sitting in front of the TV represented a bad day for me!

It was the normal morning routine, followed by getting the Munchkin into the right frame of mind to go to his less preferred babysitter while the Little Man and I go to piano lessons and I go into battle to get him to play while the teacher is standing anywhere near him (a recent development I am hoping will magically vanish by the beginning of term 3).  Then over to his Speech Pathology session to work on saying Lion instead of Yion and Yellow instead of yeyow.  A quick dash into the Supermarket and back to feed the babysitter and our combined hoard of children a simple, healthy lunch while she and I catch up on the gossip and finally home for a late afternoon nap, playtime, dinner and bed.

It wasn't until I spoke to my Mum on the phone this evening I realised how this seemingly ordinary day that I had dreaded had actually turned out to be a small ray of sunshine in my week.

Firstly the Munchkin did not spend two hours bawling for Mum as he normally has when I have left him there before, secondly I did not do battle with the Little Man.  I decided not to bother.  In a moment of pure genius I decided that I would totally ignore his behaviour and hope he would deal with whatever is going on in his head by himself.  He still didn't play when the teacher was standing by him but he sang and participated in the rest of the class. A noticeable improvement.

Thirdly, he boisterously participated in his Speech session.  She paced it to suit him - fast.  Afterwards, while he played with the Camelot castle they have and that he adores, she told me that she is impressed with his intelligence and inquisitiveness and told me that she has decided to ignore any of his bad behaviour (Like minds!) and move quickly through the exercises to keep him from boredom.  I had a giggle because he is shaping us as such a mini-me as far as learning styles go.  She then warned me that he would probably have a hard time finding teachers to accommodate this learning style, keeping him occupied rather than becoming bored and disruptive. Errrhum.  Me! I explained how he has had me worried about school choice for this exact reason.  I also explained that I had begun to doubt my judgment because the Pre-school have basically labelled him as a problem.  Validation!

The rest of the day was quite normal, then I opened my email.  Pre-school Parent Survey Day! Yee Hah!!!

I told them exactly how I felt and how he had been assessed as NORMAL or ABOVE AVERAGE in everything and how annoyed I am about them labelling him and forcing me to take him for these assessments, how I'm still so disappointed in them for sacking the teacher who was best for him (and in my opinion the pre-school).  I slammed all the problems and managed to praise them on some things they do really well.  I was very satisfied with my responses to the questions.

It was while I was talking to my Mother I realised how all of my responses to the survey had been exactly what they should have been because I had had such a good day!  The events of today had clarified my thoughts, reinforced my opinions and pulled all the strands into a neat bow.

I feel like I had a small victory for my son.

Today was a GOOD day!

How was yours?

This week I'm Glad...

for Facebook.

I have spent the last 6 or seven months trying to hunt down and get in touch with my best friend from the early years of High School.  She left at the end of year 10 in 1986 to go into the public service and I left to go to a different high school.  We managed to keep in touch for a while, meeting up occasionally and talking on the phone.  I went to her wedding in 1989 and we saw each other at my 21st in 1992.  Then we lost touch.

I could not even remember her married name, it just never stuck in my head!

Anyway, a couple of months ago I found her brother on Facebook.  I sent him an email asking if he could pass on my email address.  I then heard nothing back and he deleted his Facebook profile.

I then had the brainwave to search for one of her sisters who I knew had become an Optometrist.  I found her practice a couple of suburbs from where I live and was planning to call her, but have had no time.

This morning I had a friend request on Facebook when I opened it up. It was her!  I friended her an hour after she joined Facebook and we are excitedly exchanging catch up information.  Her brother had passed on my email.

She is living in a very remote part of W.A.  I am already planning the trip to see her!!

Vive la Facebook!


This post is part of the 'I'm Grateful For' link-up by hosted by Maxabella Loves. Click over and take a look.

Thanks for dropping by.

Things I know...

I thought I'd join in on Things I know this week as I have been such a slack blogger this week...

So here goes, Things I know;

- I have been a very slack blogger recently.

- I have two beautiful boys and they make me smile everyday.

- The Workaholic should not be allowed to just take a month off in between jobs, it plays havoc with our routines and the emotional stability of the entire family.

- Saturday afternoon is all mine, while the males of the family go to the movies to see Cars 2.

- Changing my ring tone to a cats meow was very upsetting for my kids and I should just leave it as a phone ring from now on.

- The Little Man, mastered pencil grip (finally), wiping his own bottom (again, finally) and sleeping without a nappy all at once this week.  Go you little over achiever, you are on a roll!

- A spa day is long over due.

Have a great weekend!!

Unfortunately still a little AWOL...

I'm in a creative frame of mind at the moment and the idea of sitting down and blogging has just been too much!

My apologies.  Normal service will soon resume.

I have been working on my boys baby albums since last Saturday, which was my monthly scrapbooking workshop (escape from my real life).  I am all inspired at the moment and powered though 16 pages in every spare moment I have been able to grab.  My friend said something to me on Saturday which along with posts by friends on Facebook and some bloggers about Life insurance, has made me speed up my progress.  She said she wanted both her kids to have their baby album to remember her by if anything should happen to her.

What is it with everyone and mortality at the moment?

Which leads me to my new profile picture:

Self Portrait - 40, hair not done, no make up. Just me.

I was asked by a friend I have not seen for 19 years, how I managed to look the same as I did when I was 21.  I told her, it's simple - My profile picture was taken when I was 21!  This made me feel guilty for having such an old photo representing me, so I took a new one on my phone and uploaded it to Facebook immediately, before I lost the nerve!

I need to lose some weight.  The exchange with her has made me realise that when I jokingly told her that I weigh double what I weighed in the old photo, I was off by only a couple of kilos.  Not cool.

I am definitely going to have to commit to some serious weight loss.  It will at least give me something to blog about!!

The 19 year old photo - just before I turned 21...

Wordless Wednesday

The Munchkin, so excited.
Checkers is found!
Missing for exactly 4 weeks
He reappeared from places unknown.

I'm joining in with My Little Drummer Boys & faith hope and a whole lotta love for Wordless Wednesday.

Thanks for dropping by.

Been Mentally AWOL this week

But I am back!

I started selling Avon a couple of months ago, via a very odd set of coincidences and my first 2 campaigns led to pretty good sales without me doing too much about it.  I mean I'm not going to get rich off it but I will get my own products for a cheaper price and have found a few friends who love the stuff and even picked up a couple of customers via brochure drops.

Anyway the current campaign finishes tomorrow and I suddenly realised on Thursday evening that I had not done a thing about distributing the brochure or even delivering a couple of the last campaigns orders, so I had no orders!  The weather and my mood had really conspired against me doing any kind of sales techniques to find new business.  So I sat down and sorted the brochures into bags with an order form and filled in the day I would pick and when the brochure was valid till and then on Friday the Munchkin and I did a drop in one single street in my territory.  I felt much more positive about myself for going for the walk and for doing something to seek sales.  Anyway the Little Man, the Munchkin and I walked around and picked up the brochures yesterday and alas no orders but in the mean time I had managed to deliver the orders I had here and each of these customers had given me orders for the current campaign.  I have just done a preliminary order and amazingly even with my brain and the weather conspiring against me, I have managed to increase my sales again!

It's given me the mental pick me up I needed.  Now obviously the gorgeous Sydney winter weather has helped, but it has really made me remember that I need to get off my butt and make things happen.

I've made lots of plans for the rest of the week.  Let's see just how I go!!

ET on Steroids was really what I needed

After a very frustrating week, where it appeared nothing could go right, I had a surprisingly mellow day today.

I forced myself to keep the movie date I had with the Workaholic last night.  I didn't want to go.  I was so over it all I just wanted to get into my bed and sleep.  I gave myself a mental face slap, had a shower, put the Munchkin to bed, fed the babysitter and dragged the Workaholic out for dessert and a movie.

As I sat across from him and the black cloud over his head, nursing my cappuccino, I had second thoughts.  The moody silence, weird middle ground staring and that black cloud were almost enough to send me screaming back to the car and speeding home.  I made a massive effort to engage him and finally got him to join me in this physical plane and we wandered down to see Super 8.

Well, I had no expectations as I hadn't even seen a preview, but figured it would be a safe bet as I really love the stuff that JJ Abrams does and of course Spielberg was involved.

I didn't expect it to suck me in.  I was truly terrified, exhilarated but definitely terrified.

Goodbye crap week, you are just a distant memory to me now!  I was transported to Ohio in 1979.

I'm not a movie reviewer but I really enjoyed this Homage to Spielberg.  That's what it is, ET on steroids.

Anyway, even though it meant that I came home and just could not get to sleep because my head was still in 1979 Ohio, it recharged my batteries in a big way.

I slept in this morning but somehow managed to get both boys ready and out the door in under half an hour.  Magical feat.  It is usually an hour and a half at least!!  I took the Little Man to School and the Munchkin to swimming lessons and spent the rest of the day doing some paperwork and playing with the Munchkin.

I'm Glad I saw this movie with no expectations and at such a low. It picked me right up and made me appreciate this lovely mellow day I had today.

It's simple days like this that somehow manage to completely wipe away the memory of the truly awful ones for me.

Thank you JJ Abrams.

Just a whine...

I raced around the house this morning to get the Little Man to Pre-school and myself and the Munchkin to a Sales Meeting.  It was really horrible, me yelling and grabbing stuff, them trying to slow me down because I was yelling, you know what I mean.

The Little Man got pushed into his classroom and I bolted with about 9 minutes before the 10am meeting, 7 minutes drive plus walking time away.  I felt guilty but happy I'd be able to get to the sales meeting which I had been trying to fit in.

I found a really good parking space and walked into the building only a few minutes late.  Nobody there.  I ask the receptionist.  No idea. Not expecting anyone...

I stomped back down to the shops and bought a coffee.  I tossed up on what to do.  I really didn't want to go to the meeting anyway, but was so annoyed nobody had bothered to tell me it wasn't on, so I didn't phone or text anyone, I just headed back to the car in the rain and drove home.  As I drove up the driveway I received a text asking if I wanted them to save me a seat?  What?  It was now 10.50ish. 

I replied that I had been and left and couldn't come back as I had figured I got the day wrong as there had not been anyone there at 10 and so I  had made other plans.  I was so annoyed with myself for getting the time wrong.

It's been another one of those weeks - I even put the garbage out a day early.  It's supposed to be the other way around after a long weekend isn't it?.

When I got inside I checked and I have 5 separate messages, emails and texts telling me that the meeting is at 10am...

Hmmm.  Somehow everyone else got there for 11am.  Apparently I got extra messages because I was supposed to get some sales award.  I guess I am destined to be frustrated this week.

Wordless Wednesday...

In the park in my street I noticed this tree
for the first time this week.

I stopped the pram and took some photos
it is amazingly bent to the side.
I definitely did not walk under it!
I had visions of Seven Little Australians!!

It is obviously a popular climb for the
local wildlife and kids!

I'm joining in with My Little Drummer Boys & faith hope and a whole lotta love for Wordless Wednesday.

Thanks for dropping by.

To clean or not to clean...

It seemed like a fabulous idea to cancel the Cleaner for the holiday Monday.

How could it not be? We were home and would have been in his way and he would have been in ours as we slobbed around on the lounge.  Most of all it would be $80 unspent.  In this month of no income while the Workaholic is between jobs, that can only be a good thing.

Unfortunately I forgot to account for a few factors;

1. The Workaholic and the boys and the mess that only they can make,
2. The fact that even though they make this mess, none of them feel any way inclined or obliged to assist in cleaning it up,
3. This week I am insanely busy.

Now I am left with a filthy kitchen floor (luckily the Workaholic did load the dishwasher last night in a very uncharacteristic helpful moment), the playroom is a disaster zone and the bathrooms are just foul.  I have no time to rectify the situation as my entire week is chock full of appointments.

I'm psyching myself up to at least wash the floors before the boys wake from their nap, but I doubt I am going to get to it, I'm so tired from the morning session with them.

It's Tuesday, that means Piano at 10am, which is bad enough as I have to drop the Munchkin off to a babysitter in tears, drive to the lesson and look for parking followed by walking down to the lesson, in the rain today.  The lesson itself has a few challenges lately also.  The Little Man is having a "no performing in public" period.  This is week 3.  It's very stressful.  I know how much he loves the lesson and how much practice he puts in at home, I have been spending the entire lesson trying to get him to play his solo or even just to play while the teacher is at his end of the room! Arrrgh!

Today we had the extra pressure of an O/T session just after lunch and I knew I couldn't get a babysitter for the Munchkin, so it was a session of bribing the Little Man to go along with the lovely Roslyn and distracting the Munchkin from trying to distract the Little Man.  Double Arrrgh!

On a positive note he scored well in his assessment last week even though he was very uncooperative.  She is less worried about his behaviour today.  Her thinking now is that he is a very strong willed personality and so we are working around that to improve the couple of areas he is weak in, such as pencil grip and using scissors.  We got him to use scissors today (he usually refuses) by getting him to make his own jigsaw puzzle.  He was fantastic, so determined to make is own puzzle, it completely slipped his mind that he 'can't' use scissors.

The rest of the week is just as crazy, with Gymbaroo, Avon Sales meeting, Swimming lessons and Speech Pathology.

I suspect I will plan to be out of the house for the entire weekend and leave the cleaning to the Cleaner next Monday. 

Or it that just too lazy?

This week I'm Glad...

Firstly, that I am a basically happy and positive person.

It has been a couple of very difficult weeks in the house of O.  I'm so glad that my baseline is happy or you would find me in a corner blubbering incoherently right now.  I must say though, that every time we come through a patch like this I realise what a good tight unit we are.  I know we somehow manage to get through the bad stuff and come out still smiling.

Secondly, I am so Glad that my Aunt is down from Queensland on a quick visit. We have all missed her since she moved up there to Banana Bender country in November.  The boys are so excited to see her.  She was always my favourite Aunty growing up.  It's great that they love her just as much.  She is Graunty Lennie to them. Which is so cute.  It's because the Little Man worked out that she is Nanna's sister which makes her a Grand Aunty because Nana is a Grand Mother.  Logical.  Especially if you are 4!

Thirdly, I'm so Glad I got the Little Man assessed this week (Occupational Therapist for fine motor skills especially pencil grip and Speech Pathologist because his pre-school screening was less than stellar).  I'm relieved that he only has a couple of minor things that were not age appropriate and am told a couple of half hour sessions will be all he needs to be school ready.

Finally, I am so Glad that all of the kerfuffle over the Little Man has made me decide to drop a pre-school day, back to two days a week and use the extra day for a play date, trips to the zoo or aquarium and just spend some fun unstructured time with him.

This post is part of the 'I'm Grateful For' link-up by hosted by Maxabella Loves. Click over and take a look.

Thanks for dropping by.

Mum, I didn't like Doctor Grumpy...

No, really, Little Man? I would never have guessed that!

He wasn't Dr House, but I suspect that if it had been,
The Little Man would have said the same!

Well, last Friday I took the Little Man to the Doctor and they had booked him in to the wrong one, which in his current mood was disastrous.  He refused to co-operate and the rather grumpy male Doctor in turn also refused to co-operate.  To be fair, I think he just had no idea how to deal with an uncooperative, strong willed little monster with a sore ear and a bad attitude.  It was a frustrating 15 minutes.   The Doctor barking "Don't do that" and my Little Man pushing right back and right past the limits he was trying to enforce.  I was incapable of even catching his attention, it was all focused on his battle with Dr Grumpy, he was so intense.

The outcome was frustrating also.  The Doctor tells me, he has a little indication of an ear infection on it's way but not enough for antibiotics, so I should just come back if he gets any more symptoms.

So infuriating, because if he had seen ANY of the female Doctors in the practice (pretty much every other Doctor in the practice) we would have been given a "when it arrives, get this prescription filled" antibiotics script.  All Mum's know that is the obvious way to go.  Of course his earache will become a full blown disaster at 1.30am on a day where there is no chance of a Doctors visit.  I am not an over-user of antibiotics, so please don't jump on the over use of antibiotics band wagon.  We are a family of ear infections and ruptured ear drums, believe me we only use them when required.  This is why I am so thankful to have found a hidden away emergency prescription written for him by one of the female GP's at Easter when we had a post antibiotics check up and he was almost over an ear infection.  She gave it to me in case it flared up while the surgery was closed for public holidays.  See, that's a Doctor who is also a Mum. Prepared to trust his Mum's judgement and reducing the likelihood of a long weekend ruined by a recurrence of the infection.

This kind of forethought is a blessing in a Mum's life.  We changed from our longtime Male GP to this Clinic because we had an emergency visit late one night and discovered that almost all of the regular Doctors are women and Mums.  It's conveniently local, has a mini emergency ward/treatment room (the Munchkin has been under observation there for head bumps several times), they always give children priority, even when they are booked out, appointments are usually easy to get and the boys really like the Doctors (till now anyway).

I'm such a convert to the Female GP.  I suppose it's having children, because prior to having them it never occurred to me that there could be advantages to seeing a female Doctor other than the obvious "women's issues".

I know I wont make the mistake of making an appointment with Doctor Grumpy again!

Do you have a preference for a male or female Doctor?

Playing along with Where's My Glow.

Wordless Wednesday

The Munchkin
He has taken up residence in the Kitchen when
we drop off the Little Man at Pre-School

I'm joining in with My Little Drummer Boys & faith hope and a whole lotta love for Wordless Wednesday.

Thanks for dropping by.

I had this awful restaurant lunch on Saturday.  It wasn't the food that was terrible, it was the Little Man.

We were catching up with some friends who he loves to see.  He spent almost the entire time we were in the restaurant, misbehaving, being loud, running around or rolling on the floor.  now this boy has spent a good chunk of his life in cafes and restaurants.  He knows how to behave.  He just chose not to.

This is just one thing lately that he has been in trouble for.  He is mucking up more than behaving lately and it is so out of character I've been trying to work out if there is a source or if it is normal 4 1/2 year old behaviour.  Checking with friends and a little Google research leads me to believe that it is mostly normal 4 1/2 year old behaviour with a little reaction to the Workaholics stress levels.

I have decided to be proactive and work on a plan to get him through this period without myself or the Workaholic putting up for sale on Ebay.

As I've mentioned, had his full speech assessment done, as well as an assessment of his fine motor skills as he is struggling with pencil grip and buttons.  I think he is stressed about these things and also reacting to being discussed, prodded and poked.  I suspect his stubbornness will kick in in a positive way when he can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

He is also taking forever to get dressed in the mornings.  Apparently this is common at his age and has to do with resisting transitions, in this case from home to pre-school.  There are a few suggestions on how to combat this out there, like offering options so they make the choice of clothing (we do already and makes no difference at all), taking him to pre-school in his PJ's so he is embarrassed by his peers and gets dressed there (apparently it works instantly - this I doubt, I know my son, he'd love the idea of being the kid in the PJ's and would encourage the others to do the same), or using a a timer and making it a competition (I have tried racing him but it has limited success).  I have decided to try the last one again but in a more formal manner than what I have done previously.  This time he is going to race the clock, not me.  I have bought an egg timer and I am going to give him 5 minutes to beat the timer.  I'll do some sort of sticker chart with a weekly reward.

"Why?" Now this is not the "why?" of wanting to know the answer and finding out about things.  This is the "why?" of defiance.  If any adult asks him to clean up, put his hat on, stop doing something, sit down and eat lunch, etc, he asks "Why?" instead of complying.  It's relatively new (since the loss of The Missing Teacher) and very annoying.  What do I here? No idea.

Happily both the fine motor skills and speech assessments were mostly positive and I feel armed with information to move him through his difficulties with the small areas high lighted by the assessments.  I did get to witness the problem with transitions in the speech assessment today.  I almost wanted to push the speech pathologist, she kept taking forever to transition from one test to the next and he'd lose his focus.  At least I am armed with this knowledge now and can put up distractions to move him on.

I'm not taking him to a restaurant anytime soon, but hopefully I will feel comfortable trying again soon if I can get him through this phase (am I deluded? Is it more than a phase?).

Now if I can just work out how to get him through the defiance!!

This week I'm Glad for...

both myself and the Workaholic being well.

I'm feeling the fragility of life this week.  There are a few people in my life battling the Big C and one is probably not going to win the battle.  It makes me sit back and contemplate the things I have been grumbling about with a new perspective.  At least I'm not looking at my three kids under five being Fatherless, one before his first birthday.  It's heart breaking and really has made me try harder to play the Glad Game in my small corner of the world this week.  I've been letting that slip lately.

I am also just so glad that the Workaholic is returning to the family due to the end of his job, a small break and the beginning of a much lower stress, local job.  I may have to reintroduce him to the boys next week, but I'm so excited that they will get to spend some quality time with their Dad.

Now the other thing I'm Glad for this week is The Wicked Witch of Eastern Road.  I know. Too weird.  But her making me feel like crap made me leap into action and book the Little Man in for both his full Speech assessment and an Occupational Therapy assessment so we know exactly where his fine motor skills are.  I would love for the outcome to be that he is exactly normal for his age, but unfortunately the current expectations of a good pencil grip before starting school seem to be against that.  I still don't like her, but now I'm thinking that may be an advantage if it gets me moving on helping my kids!


This post is part of the 'I'm Grateful For' link-up by hosted by Maxabella Loves. Click over and take a look.

Thanks for dropping by.

QI really is Quite Interesting

I've never been sitting down in front of the TV when QI has been on till it recently moved to a time slot where I am often in that time of evening where I'm waiting for dinner to be ready and the boys are entertained in the playroom so I sit on the lounge and have a flick.

I have become addicted.

I can't work out why I like it so much.

If you've never seen it, it is full of all sorts of crazy factoids delivered in a dubiously scored quiz show format and hosted by Stephen Fry.  Alan Davies is a regular panelist and they have three guests each episode.  I admit that since watching Stephen Fry in his documentary The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive I must say I have a soft spot for him, so I guess he is one reason I enjoy it.

I suspect it's more about the state of my brain at the moment than the quality of the show, but I find it very entertaining. Quite Interesting, in fact...

Do you find that you suddenly become enamoured by a TV show and can't quite understand why, or are even a little embarrassed by it?  Is it just me or do other, otherwise sane people have this issue? (I know you are all sane!)

The Playtex delivery arrived!

If you have discovered Playtex Coolster cups then you know my joy.

For those of you who haven't, they are the only cups that don't leak EVER. My four year old has been taking a Playtex cup of water to bed since he was old enough to ask for a drink and we have never had a leak.

I discovered them by chance.  I was given a stage 1 cup in a baby hamper when the Little Man was born.  I threw it in the cupboard and forgot about it until I was struggling with leaking cups and tried it.  I was amazed and at that stage Big W and Coles stocked them.  Neither do now though.  I passed my discovery on to a couple of friends and a few others had already made the discover themselves.

It drives me mad that Playtex cups and baby products are almost impossible to buy in Australia.  Don't get me started on spare parts... Grrrrrr. 

I contacted the Australian distributor direct and had no joy.  So I took the matter into my own hands.  I asked my friends if they were interested in splitting the freight and ordering from the US.  The freight to Australia is REALLY over priced on their website, but the product is sooooo much cheaper.  I then negotiated the freight price down and with the AU$ being so high (it went through at $1.10 so it was an automatic discount), it worked out cheaper than buying locally, if of course the products had been available here in the first place.

Sorting the order in progress!

Now I have this fabulous contact in their Customer Service department, she was so helpful.  I will probably do it again around Christmas for replacement parts and Christmas presents.  I'm happy to cut you in if you are in Sydney.  Their site is www.playtexstore.com.  Leave me a comment and I'll email you when I am doing the next order.

The Wicked Witch of Eastern Road

I have issues with Director at my son's pre-school, I'm pretty hard to upset and I find so few people this annoying that I can count them on one hand.  It's an exclusive club, the Sam-O can't stand you Club. 

It started right at the beginning of the year and ramped up around the time of the Missing Teacher.  I had my say and things calmed down for a while, but today she managed to derail my entire day.

This week the Little Man has been more difficult and stubborn than usual.  He wouldn't play his solo or participate in the farewell song at his Piano lesson which is unheard of because he LOVES piano lessons.  It follows on from back chat and general disobedience that we had to endure on the weekend.  The Workaholic and I have discussed moving him back to two separated days of pre-school from the the three running days he has been doing since the beginning of the year.  I found out last week that they haven't been doing their school prep work every day and this was after I brought up my concerns about his inability to hold a pencil correctly with his teacher and she told me she would work with him daily at school prep time!  Another reason for the change is that he and his best mate have become really rough with each other during play time since the Missing Teacher left and I think it would be better for the Little Man, at least to have a little separation.

When I dropped him off this morning the Director was available (she usually has her door closed) so I decided to discuss the change with her.  I didn't get as far as my concerns regarding rough play.  As soon as I mentioned that I was thinking of reducing him back to two days she drops into the conversation that he really should get referred to an Occupational Therapist.  This is a typical communication with this woman!  She just comes out with surprise comments and blindsides you.  It's insane.  I was thrown completely off balance and didn't get out half of what I was intending to say (also very unusual for me).

I am not adverse to having an Occupational Therapy assessment for him.  He was a premmie and he is struggling with fine motor skills lately.  He can't hold a pencil.  Seconds after he is shown how and his fingers are positioned, he has completely forgotten where they should be.  He can't undo or do up buttons and we have been working on this for at least two years!!  I'm sure the assessment and some OT will be beneficial.  It's just the way she says these things!

I drifted foggily out of her office and collected the Munchkin from the kitchen where he takes up residence each morning, got into my car, opened an envelope I had picked up from the Little Man's pigeon hole, freaked out more, because it was his speech pathologist assessment and it was unexpectedly not good, then drove almost blindly the 25 minutes to Gymbaroo.

The speech assessment was terrible.  I have no doubt it is about 10% correct as yes, he does say 'y' instead of 'l' (yion instead of lion).  The rest is him being stubborn and refusing to go along with the Renfrew test.  Usually I would have had a bit of a giggle about the stubborn little bugger but the Wicked Witch had rendered me incapable of finding anything funny today.

This really has reinforced my doubts about sending the Munchkin there when he is old enough.  I know through unofficial sources that the Director who is on maternity leave is not returning and I just don't think I can stand having this girl in charge.  I mean she broke her leg doing something stupid on a motorbike while drunk, that so doesn't instill any faith in her.

Anyway in my Witch induced funk today, I decided to be pro active so I rang up the paediatric therapy people and made appointments for a full speech assessment and an OT assessment.  $325 later and I will have the moral high ground (if his assessments come out OK of course) in my next scuffle, battle, conversation with her.

It amazes me how a single person can make such a difference to my mood and entire day.  I prefer it when I don't see her at drop off and pick up, I usually avoid even exchanging pleasantries with her if possible.  This is so unusual for me.  I'm friendly.  I have no problems getting along with people.  It takes a huge amount to annoy me.  She just gets under my skin.

Wordless Wednesday

Playroom reorganisation as a way to keep warm on a cold wet rainy day.
We are all very happy with the outcome.
I have promises to "keep it tidy, everyday, forever"
Ha!

I'm joining in with My Little Drummer Boys & faith hope and a whole lotta love for Wordless Wednesday.

Thanks for dropping by.