April 2012
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blah, blerp, blug ugh, whatever
Jacket’s mom bailed on her agreement that I would be taking Jacket to the zoo with Carrie, Andrew and Blitzen. Yesterday morning I texted “getting on the subway now” (to pick Jacket up) and she responded “we’re not home”. WTF? Fortunately, I wasn’t actually getting into the subway, and intuition told me to start the communication while I was still...
Well shit. Jacket’s mom just got a slew of little girl cousins dumped on her. I skirted around inviting them all over for dinner. I’m just going to pick Jacket up in the morning.
Hopefully she’ll be willing to leave her cousins and come with me. I’m not going to cave and bring any cousins along.
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Jacket’s aunt had her baby and picked up all of the cousins. We postponed dinner until tomorrow night and it’ll be a managable night of just Jacket, her mom and grandma.
Wow has my perspective changed now that I’m thinking it’ll be a chill night with just the 4 of us. Let’s
pause
for
a
moment
and
take
...
Jacket stopped pushing her cousin. Yay.
4-day old baby ---Call from the foster agency
Just got a call from the foster agency asking me to take a 4 day old. “Are you still taking babies or are you sick of us, Ms. __________?” “Sick of YOU, I’m surprised you’re not sick of me! But no, I only want to adopt.” loong silence. “4-days old” he said and NOW I feel his pain. I learned the hard way how miserable newborns can be. A lot of...
Little girls, little girls, little girls
I met a new aunt, paternal, of Jacket’s during her birthday party. I was shocked by how normal she was. Then I remembered how smart Jacket’s father is and it made more sense. She arrived very pregnant with four little girls all age 5 and under. She was so normal, calm, rational, considerate that I thought at any moment we would be exchanging knowing glances. I wanted to beam...
“I feel better but I’m still going to finish that excel spreadsheet...”
– Me, to another friend shortly after talking to Gwen
“Did I just spend my weekend seriously freaking out about a hypothetical terminal...”
– Me to Gwen on the phone
Do you accept adults on Holiday at your Preschool?
Check out this preschool in Australia (keep scrolling down for the good stuff).
What kid (or adult) wouldn’t want to play there?
Sick, single-moms without family- you amaze me
This past week when I was coming out of my subway stop there was a woman flipping out. She was screaming, crying and running up and down the sidewalk. She was shouting into the phone
“You better fucking make bail you mother-fucker. So-and-so hit So-and-So and they think I aint got nobody…”
It took a couple of seconds but then I realized that the woman probably just had her...
Jacket’s cousins canceled today and I’ve had a stomach bug from hell for the past couple of days so I asked Jacket’s mom not to come over. My friend practically had to force me to cancel, I still feel as if every meeting with Jacket might be our last.
I still feel sick (but getting better) so I’m glad I canceled, but now I’m stuck in bed and I can’t stop...
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museum membership, now do I conduct a staff...
I decided to get the year-long family pass for Jacket et al. It comes with a card for me and a card for Jacket’s mom-both admits 2 adults plus [any] 4 children.
On Sunday Jacket, her mom, grandma and 3 little girl cousins are coming over for lunch and then I’m going to take them all to the museum. In addition to a little Earth Day celebration in the forecasted rain, it’s an...
Jacket’s mom knew what button to push- I’m making color coded folders of information for her.
And while I’m at it, I think I’m going to make a kids’ summertime activity folder full of free places (and simplified directions that at least the 12 y.o. Should be able to manage) to take the kids.
2 tags
A security guard!
Jacket’s mom would make a GREAT security guard! She doesn’t have to be friendly, she’s hypervigilent for bad people, she’s great at barking out demands… maybe no reading and writing involved…
Hmm. I’d love for her to work near my house just on the weekends so she could drop Jacket off. A win-win or manipulative on my end? Thinking, thinking.
UPDATE:...
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Sunday
Update: The museum pass I’m looking at comes with 2 cards. One for Jacket’s mom and one for me. Does that make a difference? If she doesn’t use it, I still will (same price as me taking Jacket to the museum myself twice).
———
Jacket is inseperable from her cousins these days. I’m learing to adapt. I’m realizing that since Jacket’s...
Life Skill Lessons from my mom
As I’ve mentioned, Jacket causes me to think about my own childhood constantly these days. Tonight I just remembered my mom spending several serious sessions with me showing how to pick things up with my toes.
What the hell was that about? It definitely wasn’t “Here’s a fun thing to learn”. Instead she was completely serious. I think anyway. Or maybe she was being...
2 tags
Children's sex abuse prevention book...
A while back you all gave me an excellent list of safety lessons for Jacket. Several of you suggested that I talk to her about sexual abuse prevention (in age appropriate language). I’ve been trying to figure out how to do it without her repeating something back to her mom that might be misinterpreted.
Jacket, her cousins, her mom and probably grandma are coming over again on Sunday (if...
Just a side note- there actually is a [DSM-IV-R] cognitive impairment classification that is milder than Mild Mental Retardation, it’s called “Borderline Intellectual Functioning”. And in cases of the latter, many folks still qualify for disability services.
1 tag
So, it's happened
Jacket’s mom has asked me to help her find a job.
The request came in a text message “Do you knew anyone how hiding rigth now”the. Mind you, the motivation to text message has been revolutionary in improving Jacket’s mom’s literacy skills- but I had no idea what she was talking about. Then she said something about the store Target and finally she called me.
I...
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Fingers crossed that Jacket gets into any... →
So, like, become a foster parent already people
I was just at the foster agency to pick up my new license and was begged asked several times to take 1-year-old twins home.
I wish I could get more of you to become licensed at my agency so that I could say “No, but maybe try whosie-whatsit…”.
Update for fyrikaos: Just call 311. You’ll have a child in your home before you can say “Holy fucking shit that...
4 tags
duck, duck, duck, fuuuuck- where is she going?
Have I ever mention that Ara is an autism coach for the Board of Ed (on a long maternity leave)? I got to see her mad skills come into play on Sunday during an attempted game of Duck, Duck, Goose. I had 8-10 girls Jacket’s age or younger and most didn’t know the game. We made a successful circle with Jacket’s mom, Ara and I joining in.
“Who wants to go first?” I...
59 out of 71 and she still has a year to go →
a link listing “71 things a child needs to know before kindergarten”. Do you agree?
Jacket has all of the skills down except:
Identifies upper-case letters
Identifies lower-case letters
Identifies by naming, numerals 0-10
Balances on one foot for 5 seconds (I haven’t actually asked her to do it, but…)
Hops on one foot 2-3 hops
Hops on one foot- 6 ft.
Copies first...
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I'm not even going to ask
voicemail from Jacket’s mom:
“Ah, thank you Rebecca for everything, you hear? Just so you know, that cab driver threw us out around the corner and we had to find another one. Jacket likes her gifts. Bye and have a good day.”
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And a giant thanks to Ara’s mom who was in town from Texas. She took the whole adults-stealing-candy-from-children scene in stride and was an enormous help in all respects throughout the party.
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“Even managing a birth mom under NORMAL conditions is stressful.”
– Erika- responding to my surprise at feeling dread before the party. On second pass, the fact that we even have a common language for “normal conditions” with a birth mom is sort of crazy making in and of itself.
