Head of Transportation

I sent out that letter I wrote about transportation issues. There have been 5 incidences in 5 weeks. I was going to send the letter to the principal and head of transportation but didn't have an email for the principal so only the head of transportation was blessed with my golden pen (so to speak). Yesterday as I waited at the bus stop for the little prince to come home, playing with my new HTC Evowho do I see walking in front of the bus stop but the head of transportation! I didn't approach him, but after a minute or so he came up to me saying he told Jordan he'd be waiting for him at the bus stop today. That's about the time the bus came. The kids got off and here came my little prince! I spoke with Mackie, the trans. head, for about a half hour about the different incidences that have happened to my poor, sweet boy. The man was absolutely livid that he wasn't even told about some of them before my email. He stood there and told me to take his cell phone number down and made me call it to make sure I got it right! He told me that the driver that dropped Jordan off at the wrong stop was reprimanded and that he agreed with me, that Jordan was lost. He's always said and stood by that he's never lost a Kindergartener. He always comforted us with his talk of policies and procedures. I teasingly told him he'd have to rewrite his Kindergarten orientation speech for next year!

Mackie was just as appalled at the fact these things were happening as I am. He was mad at the teacher who put him on the bus without at bus tag, he was mad at the secretary for telling me he couldn't ride (he said the only thing she was authorized to say about transportation was to give his number), he was mad at the driver for letting him off at the wrong stop, and he was mad at his staff for not reporting these incidences. He was not even aware that Jordan was let off at the wrong stop until the principal called him on it. It sounded like she read him the riot act, too. He told me he even argued with her a bit and said it was impossible for that to have happened. He checked into the incidence where Jordan got off the bus at the wrong school and told me that the principal had to put him on a different bus to get to school because his had already left!

I mentioned in my letter that Jordan has auditory processing difficulties but that if his staff were doing their job properly it wouldn't be an issue. He told me that he can't know these things if he isn't told and practically asked to be present at the next IEP meeting!

I am absolutely disgusted with the way things are going with transportation. I think that Mackie has been deluded into thinking he runs a well-oiled machine because his staff simply doesn't report things to him. Maybe they figure if it gets resolved, there's no reason to involve him.

He and I both disagree.

random thoughts

Worked out today using the weights for the first time in a while. I'm a bit shaky so I thought I'd make some protein-filled breakfast. I had one egg left so mixed some cubed ham with it, fried it in butter and put it on a toasted bagel with cheese. it's always a bit dry so I added some sauce. What kind of sauce to add? Hm, there's ranch dressing, why not. Why not? Because ham and ranch don't go well together you silly dingbat. Whoever heard of a ham and ranch sandwich? Nobody! Because they taste terrible together.

So here I am with my ham and ranch breakfast sandwich and coffee shaking over my keyboard as I type nonsense in a blog. Had a workout buddy today. haven't had one of those in a while. Thanks Mary! Do you have a blog somewhere I can follow? Even if not, you're welcome to follow mine.

I was a bit later than usual getting to the gym today because my little prince's friends from upstairs missed the bus and I lent our car seats so they could be driven to school. I picked up the living room a bit while waiting for them to come back.

I got a call yesterday from a friend wanting a blanket for her granddaughter for Christmas. She was promised one and never got it from someone else. Just when I thought I was getting caught up on orders! At least it's something I like to do.

lost 4 times in 5 weeks

I wrote a letter today. After stewing about it all weekend, I wrote a letter. I haven't sent it to anyone except my sister/friend/sidekick for editing, but it will get sent out. Maybe to a lot of people.

It's frustrating beyond belief that the same people can lose the same child so many times in such a short time. I wonder what kind of response I'll get.

Transportation is going to give me an ulcer.

Yesterday was unimaginable. I put my little prince on the bus for the first time. He got on and didn't look back. I was bored all day long. I cleaned and scrubbed and tidied and wondered what the heck I'd have left to do today if i kept it up. Finally it's time to go get him off the bus. Kids came off, he wasn't one of them. I called to the driver. He had the backpack with him, but no little prince. He hollered for him. He mentioned that (duh) he must've gotten on the bus because he had the backpack. He thought for a moment and said that he thought my little prince got off at another stop. he asked if he was a little blond boy. I affirmed and started panicking. The driver offered to take me to the previous stop and I thought it would be quicker than to walk the half city block or so back to my own vehicle. So he drove me to the previous stop where we saw my little prince charming playing at the park on a slide. I almost collapsed from relief. The bus pulled up and opened it's doors and the driver called out his name. He looked up and came running back onto the bus. He almost walked past me but I tugged on his shirt. He turned and looked at me and said "oh hi mom" like there was nothing in the world wrong. He hugged me and said "I'm happy to see you" and I told him that he had no idea how happy I was to see him too!

First day of Kindergarten

I woke up this morning, made my little prince breakfast (which he refused to eat), and took him to school. I didn't have a drop off procedure written out or told to me so I followed the line of cars waiting in front of his school, parked, and took him inside to his teacher's room where he was greeted with a hug from his new teacher and encouraged to find a place to sit down at their tables. I told the little prince to give me a hug and said goodbye but he held onto my leg and said "no, don't go" and I nearly went to pieces. I also encouraged him to find a place to sit so he did and I left the room without looking back. I didn't hear him yell or cry or in anyway notice I'd left. I asked his teacher who I should talk to about transportation as I thought since a bus stopped at our apartment complex, it would stand to reason my little guy would ride it to school. He sent me to the office where I asked who to contact. I was told that they could give me the number for transportation, but that we were "within walking distance" so the bus didn't go from our place to the school. I said no problem, I can bring him and pick him up, I just needed to know. I craved to go back to his classroom and check on how he was doing, but I didn't let myself. I started walking down the hall and when I saw all those kids putting papers and backpacks in their lockers I started crying! I was angry at myself. "Stop being ridiculous!" I screamed in my head. I pulled myself together and stepped between the double doors that opened up to the outside. One of the little prince's teachers was out there and asked me how I was. "Fine," I squeaked. I squeaked? Oh no. There came the tears. A woman in front of me turned, wiping her eyes, and said she was glad that she wasn't the only one.

When I came back at noon to pick him up from his half day, I followed the written pickup procedure. I was nearly the only one. The procedure clearly states not to start a second line but that's what others did. I was stuck in my car by the curb in 90° weather with the top down getting sunburned for 20 minutes before I got up to the doors. The 2nd line was moving much more quickly than the first line. I believe maybe the teachers were trying to clear it out for us by the curb but it only encourages them to continue doing it. By the time I got up there by the door, the teacher was no longer in sight. I went into the building and his room was dark. I wondered where my little guy was so I went outside and asked another teacher where I should look. she said that sometimes students were sent to the office if the teacher had to go to a meeting or something and they hadn't been picked up yet. I saw his teacher on my way to the office so I asked him where I should look for him. He told me he may be on the bus if he got in the wrong line. I mentioned that he didn't have a bus tag! His teacher said that his name was on the bus list. It annoyed me to think that this grown man tried to pawn off responsibility to my boy for getting on a bus when he's only 5 years old! Actually, he won't even be 5 till Friday. The teacher ran out to the bus which hadn't left yet and got him off the bus to ride home with me. Boy was my little prince upset. He wanted to ride the bus! But who knows where he would have ended up? Sure, Kindergarteners aren't let off the bus without a parent to pick them up but without a bus tag, the driver can't know he's a kindergartener. And if my little prince got talking to anotehr child, he may have just got off the bus with them, who knows where! I called transportation when I got home and asked them if he could ride the bus since there was one that stopped here. I gave his name and the name of the complex where we live and his grade and school. The lady that answered the phone said that he would be on the bus starting tomorrow, that she was making up a bus tag to give to the driver to tie to the little prince's backpack. So there we have that! He gets on the bus tomorrow and I have to trust that there are procedures in place to make sure he gets to where he needs to go!

It's so incredibly difficult for me to trust someone I don't know with the care of my child. I feel like no one knows him or understands him like I do and that I'm sure he'll have problems communicating with anyone else. I'm certain that he's going to lose his lunch money, or say he doesn't have any, or something. Then he'll make a wrong turn in the hallway and go to somewhere he doesn't know and not know how to get back to his room and with his communication difficulties he won't be able to tell them he needs to go to Mr. K's room. Let it go, Kendra. Let it go.

Kindergarten

My Little Prince Charming is going to Kindergarten in a couple weeks. I still have a few things to pick up for him to take to school, but he is excited about it. I told him he'd be starting school soon and I told him his new teacher's name. He said "ok, let's go, where's my backpack?" lol! My grandma recently went into a nursing home for a couple weeks of rehab so she can walk again and she's going crazy not being able to get anything for him. Every week when she went grocery shopping she'd pick up a toy or clothes, or both, for him. She wants to buy him a new outfit for school. Hopefully she'll get out to do that before school starts, but if not, I can pick something up for her to give him.

Spring cleaning

I think I must be the only one who gets the spring cleaning bug in late summer or early autumn. Most of my friends speak of spring cleaning in March or April but I never get started before August. I wonder why that is?

H-E-R-O

Last week was VBS at my parent's church so I sent my little prince for a couple days. Only a couple days because the nights were late for him and he was cranky all the next day so I just kept him home. We'll try again. Their theme was Heroes. There was a song they sang that went "H-E-R-O God is my hero" and Jordan was saying the "H-E-R-O" part yesterday. I said "that spells hero" and Jordan replies "yeah, that's my dad!"

It was so cute I almost cried.

What's so funny?

I wondered what the heck was so funny about me driving down the road till I got to a corner and looked both ways to turn. As some other random man in a truck was laughing at me, I saw a toy pistol poking out of the window from the back seat! My little Prince Charming was aiming at people from the car!

Kindergarten

My little prince is enrolled in Kindergarten for the 2010-2011 school year! It's full day this year and he'll be going to the elementary school I went to! Of course, none of the teachers I had are there anymore and instead of being 1-5 it's now k-2, but I believe the librarian is the same one!

I had his IEP this week. The staff seems great! They had ideas they tossed out for new goals for the school year and although a couple of them won't be coming back in the fall they still participated as if they were. they encouraged me to send Jordan on play dates and socialize him over the summer. He doesn't have friends that we see outside of the classroom so I'm thinking about sending him to VBS when it comes around and maybe spend some time at his cousin's if she's still around. She and her mom might be vacationing out of state for a good portion of the summer :(

Kindergarten and princesses

I get to register my little prince for kindergarten today! Right after I get my allergy shot I get to load up the documentation and take him to a nearby school to get his hearing and vision checked. Since his birthday is after Sept 1 they'll also do a readiness screening on him. I know he knows all the shapes and colors and numbers and whatever else they mentioned they'd be checking, but I'm nervous that he won't show them he knows it and they'll tell me he can't go till next year! Tell me it's unreasonable!

He's on antibiotics for an ear infection and bronchitis and had a couple little accidents yesterday because of them so instead of going through his entire supply of underpants I put him in one of his daddy's T-shirts to make it easier to use the bathroom and still stay covered. He loved it! It came all the way down to the floor so he twirled around and said "look at me, I'm Cinderella!" I laughed. I texted my sil who told me her daughter probably made him play princesses with her at some point. I asked him about it and he said "ok, I"m a princess" and gave me a big cheesy grin. We're just waiting for him to make his cousin play spiderman or something now!

Kindergarten

I went to Kindergarten orientation last night. I found out there are a ton of forms to be completed, along wtih records to be copied, etc. This year the district is going to full day kindergarten. They didn't mention that till someone asked about it as people were starting to leave! It was kind of annoying. So I have a lot of papers to fill out before next Tuesday. I can't believe the load of stuff they want my 5 year old (when school starts) to know before even entering K! They want him to fasten his own clothes, tie his own shoes, write his name, know his colors, know his shapes, count to 10, count 5 objects...now some of this is basic stuff, really and I know that, but I have been trying to get him to write his name (he can spell it) and I'm really not making any progress. He may not be going to the school that's only a half mile or so away either. The speech therapist works at a different school so he may be bussed over there instead. Oh, we got to hear the head of transportation talk about how he never loses kindergartners! It was a funny speech with an example of how one was misplaced last year for an hour because the kid switched name tags with someone else and got put on the wrong bus!

I'm just really excited for next year to start and this year isn't even over yet!

spring break

Today is the last day of spring break for my little prince. I'll miss him when he goes back to school tomorrow but I can't pretend not to be at least a little relieved lol! I'll be glad not to hear pop goes the weasel every five minutes. Well, I'd probably miss that too.

He went up to the sprint store with me today to see if they could fix my phone. It's got the vapors ;-) I just backed up my files on the computer because I want to see if I can reset it to fix the problem, but don't want to lose my contacts.

My little prince

I don't even have the words to describe how proud I am. Not for any big thing, or anything "special" but just because God chose me to be that little guy's caregiver. He's been talking more and using more words and putting sentences together. Lately he's been driving us crazy with "what are you doing?" every 30 seconds! Even if we haven't changed what we're doing, he still continues to ask again and again. Today he told me "I hurt my knee" which is a big difference from "Ow, that hurts" and then trying to get him to tell me where it hurts. He still doesn't know how to tell me what happened. He'll just keep continue telling me that his knee hurts.

My poor little prince charming missed school yet again today. I'm so frustrated with sickness hitting him all the time! Today I took him to the dr. and he was put on a codeine cough syrup! He's 4 years old. I was told to not give him a bit more than was prescribed. He also had a low grade fever at the dr but not at home. I wonder if it's just a deviation in the thermometers.

Proud mommy

My little prince wanted a bedtime story so I chose a book we've been working on reading together for a while. It's a story about how Eeyore loses his tail and finds it again. It's a short board book with few words. He can read almost the whole thing to me now! I'm so proud! He's even recognizing words on different pages. I mean, he hasn't memorized the story and just knows he's supposed to say certain words, I mean that he sees "good" on one page, then recognizes it on another even if he doesn't know any of the other words. I love watching him learn!

rambles

Weight loss journeys suck. Not so much the loss of weight part, but the yo-yo part and the gaining back permanently part. I'm tired of it and I'm ready to make some changes that count!

Photography business is going pretty good at this time. I've had 2 shoots already this month and another one coming in today in a few hours. I need to finish cleaning out the studio area before then.

My little prince charming sat wonderfully still for his school picture for me and it came out perfect, except for the crazy hair:But the smile is beautiful! It's rarely seen in photos. The very next day after I took this photo, I got an envelope in his backpack announcing that picture day is coming up! I laughed so hard at that. I like the background they use and I want a class picture so I'm going to get the smallest package they have and hopefully it even looks as good or better than the one I took.

Snow day

My little prince had his very first snow day yesterday! He loved being home and playing with me all morning, but by mid-afternoon I was beat and just wanted to be left alone! Boy, can he play hard!

served me right...

So I decided to cheat a little on my "new healthy lifestyle" and have some of my rich, creamy, potato soup for breakfast. I know that if I eat starchy foods I need protein to go with them or else I'm hungry for more and more and more, so I made some smoky links too. I made the soup a bit hotter than usual so I could eat my smoky links without worrying about it getting cold. I had eaten one smoky link while the soup was finishing it's heat cycle in the microwave. I carried my soup alone to the computer then came back for my coffee and sausage. I sat everything down on the desk and when I sat down I knocked the bowl of boiling hot soup right into my lap (and on my hand where I tried to keep it from falling off the desk). I screamed and jumped and ended up throwing soup all over the bedroom. My poor husband was still asleep and came running to see what was wrong, to find me stripping off my jeans while still screaming. I have a pink hip/thigh and a red palm. I had to take my wedding rings off to make my hand more comfortable. I hate doing that. Then I had to clean up the incredible mess in the bedroom! I'm a bit uncomfortable right now, but I guess this is what I get for having such a rich breakfast!

life happens

I'm having a terrible time keeping my apartment clean. DH prefers to sleep on the floor of the living room because the bed hurts his back now and I prefer to sleep with DH so I've been out there too. Since he works 2nd shift he's up later and sleeps later. Since he's been suffering from insomnia, he's up all night and sleeps all day. On his days off I don't even bother waking him so he may not get up till 4pm! His work days I wake him at 2. When he's gone I spend time cleaning and tidying the living room which takes all my free time in the evenings and sometimes there's so much to do I can't tell I've tried to do anything! In the mornings I'm gone in order not to wake him so I can't do anything then. I'm beginning to feel listless. I have craft projects to do so I'm occupied, but being occupied in a trash heap isn't very satisfying.

My dear little prince doesn't want to do anything but watch his movies. I can't even get him to draw pictures WHILE watching his movies. He's turning into a vegetable and I'm going to have to unplug the dvd player or hide all his movies and ride out the tears and tantrums (and let me tell you he can have good ones!).

I've also started counting calories and am trying to exercise more. I signed up at sparkpeoplea couple years ago and it worked so I signed back on a couple weeks ago to keep myself accountable and it's working again. That's a good thing.

Back to school

After almost 3 weeks of winter break, my little prince is back in school. I saw many improvements over the break concerning his attitude and speech/language development. He's using longer sentences now, and initiating conversations. Hopefully he'll pick up socially while in class as well.