I can't Believe It

Hayden's cast slipped again. AGAIN. There goes my whole day again. AGAIN. If this kid ever gets to have his limbs free of casts, I'll be surprised. He was seven months old yesterday. His whole life has consisted of this and while many people assure me (including me) that this is his "normal" - it's not MY normal. Normal for me is being able to touch my child's skin - everywhere. Normal for me is being able to watch my baby do the same stuff as other babies his age. Normal for me is not being bruised on my legs and having an itchy rash on my arms from him kicking me with fibreglass casts. Normal for me is being able to bathe him when he is dirty and not having to be afraid to give him something messy to eat because he may get it into places difficult to sponge off of him. Normal for me is being able to smell his feet and bite (nibble) his toes and not have him yank them away from me like I am burning him. Normal for me is not having my little baby shriek in pain and jiggle his leg funny when he is in pain from bad casts or raw skin. Normal for me is being able to curl his little legs under him and really hold him. It isn't any wonder to me why he is still spitting up so much - because I have to hold him facing out with my arm across his stomach. It's the only way both of us are comfortable. Otherwise when I hold him facing me - his legs are curled back and away from me and he has way more leverage to push off of me. And it figures he would end up being my heaviest baby because my back is in complete crisis from always holding him. I'm just feeling sorry for myself (and him) I guess.

On other fronts, Kestrel started preschool yesterday and much to my amusement, when I dropped her off it was shades of leaving Hannah at her first day of Kindergarten. She didn't even look back at me, barely said good-bye and I had to call her back to give her the "you have to listen to the teacher and remember to tell her when you have to go pee" speech. I decided that since I had a foot that was bothering me, I would hang around the little mall next door until she was done rather than hoofing all the way back home and back again (it's about a 15 minute walk each way). I was cruising a stall when I heard an excited "There's Mommy!" and there they all are, hanging onto the rope as they are led around on their outing! It was great, because she didn't even run over to me or ask to see me, she just kept on trucking after I smiled and waved. I'm glad that she is comfortable in new situations and accepting of new people around her. I wondered a bit about bringing her Marshmallow and Uggies (stuffed rabbit and soothers) in case a crisis arose, but decided this was my opening to maybe wean her off the pacifiers as I am dreading that first visit to the dentist. We left the house without her saying a word about them (she was almost sick with excitement about going to school and on the way there was being so silly I had to tell her to quit it or I wouldn't take her), but her first question to me when I picked her up was "Where's Marshmallow and Uggies?". I told her they were at home. Her second question: "Can we go home?" She made a little firetruck there which consisted of a paper box with a picture of a firetruck and some paper wheels pasted on. But that is her first official artwork and I am loving it.

Hayden has been teething again and I can see it is the next set of bottom ones - figures he decides to do the teeth out of sequence, but whatever. He makes a very funny sound when he is teething that is a bit like a pigeon. I am going to try and capture a video clip of it and post it. It will sound very cute to you, but try to imagine endless hours of him doing it. My ears were bleeding by the end of yesterday.

Hannah came home yesterday and informed me that she had gotten the consent form for her Grade Nine booster shot (MMR), but that she was going to need 10 injections. When I had a look at the form, it was stating that she'd had none of her immunizations. I realized after some pondering (because they've had her vaccination record since Kindergarten) that because we changed her last name, they didn't know who she was. Knobs. Here is the letter I attached to the form (which I saved on my computer under "January 06 Letter to Dumbass Health Authority):

To Whom It May Concern:

Hannah has had a recent surname change. Please check your records under Hannah (Johnson) McCoy for her immunizations. She is up to date on all of them, save the Hep B, which we have declined. Your records should be maintained more carefully.

I am signing the consent form for the MMR booster shot only.

Thank you.

I hope they stick that in their pipe and smoke it. They wanted me to attach a copy of her immunization record (which is buried in the basement somewhere), so that was my way of saying "you do the work, morons".

Speaking of morons, I received a cheque in the mail the other day from the Family Maintenance Enforcement Program - a government run program that tries to get the child support out of dead-beat dads. Hannah's sperm donor (I shudder now to think I was actually married to this ass) is the epitome of "dead-beat". And he has spawned two more children, if you can believe it. He owes her approximately $18,595 CDN. To date they have only been able to extract $616 CDN from him. I want them to just throw him in jail. Do you want to know how much he was supposed to pay per month? $100. That's it. $100 that would have maybe paid for some diapers and shoes when she was a baby and would barely cover anything to do with her teenage life. But now, because he has not paid a cent, he owes her the above amount. The last time they sent me money (and the only other time), he sent me an email saying I should have had an abortion and that he would much rather have paid for that. All I could do was laugh because I thought "well that really hurts 14 YEARS AFTER THE FACT"!! If that is the best he can do, then he will never win against me in a contest of wit. I hope he dies a grisly death.

Well, I guess I have gotten my "ya-yas" out. Time for a picture. I found this one on the camera. It's proof that Hayden does actually sleep from time to time.