Thursday, March 31, 2005
Where do you draw the line...
...between providing your child with a world of experiences and opportunities to grow, and overscheduling their lives to the point of exhaustion? I realised that all of the classes and groups I've got lined up for Kellan over the next few months leave us no free time whatsoever during the week. He'll be in swim lessons, at Fun Shop, play group, music class, and Parents as Teachers among other things. I want him to learn to swim, to explore his musical gifts, to play with other children of his own age, and to develop into a social and capable young man. I feel that these activities foster such growth. Then again, Springfield is boring, incredibly boring, so boring that you might nod off just thinking about it. Am I overscheduling my 13 month old son just to give myself something to do? I honestly think not. I'm overscheduling my 13 month old son to give him something to do!
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
The IRS --- ggggrrrrrrrrr
Well, we're home from a lovely trip to San Diego, two weeks of sunshine, family, and friends. Kellan had a wonderful time. He was fantastic on the flights there and back, good naps, lots of playing, really didn't cause me any problems. And I'm still flying him for free on my lap, so I definitely got lucky. We spent lots of days at the beach, went to Legoland California, The San Diego Zoo, the Birch Aquarium, visited my old friends and professors at SDSU (department of Geography), and generally enjoyed every minute.
I returned, however, to a decreased tax refund and a notice from the IRS. Oops, my fault, I forgot to include Kellan's social security number on our tax form. It was one of those, "I'll go get it in a second" thoughts and I simply forgot. So, I called the number on our notice, had all of the requested information at hand, and hoped that they could point me in the right direction so that we can get the rest of our tax refund. In what dream world was I living? After having typed in my entire family history by push button phone, the woman then asks me all of the same questions again. Fine, security, I get it. Then, unexpectedly, she starts asking me about my 2003 tax return. Well, I'm at work, and I filed that from the UK (because we had to before they would allow Nic a visa even though I didn't work in the US at all during that tax year). I don't know where it is, and I certainly don't know, off hand, the exact amounts of taxable income or other information that she was requesting. Suddenly, she flies off the handle and starts accusing me of trying to commit tax fraud, of calling on behalf of someone else, she can report me for this, and so on. Um, what??? She became very belligerent and refused to give me any information, even just to tell me which freaking form I need so that I can get them the SSN information!
What a nightmare. Now I don't know how to get them the info and I can't call back because I'm sure that they have me listed as a criminal mastermind since I couldn't, from work, recite every detail of my 2003 tax return. Could you?
I returned, however, to a decreased tax refund and a notice from the IRS. Oops, my fault, I forgot to include Kellan's social security number on our tax form. It was one of those, "I'll go get it in a second" thoughts and I simply forgot. So, I called the number on our notice, had all of the requested information at hand, and hoped that they could point me in the right direction so that we can get the rest of our tax refund. In what dream world was I living? After having typed in my entire family history by push button phone, the woman then asks me all of the same questions again. Fine, security, I get it. Then, unexpectedly, she starts asking me about my 2003 tax return. Well, I'm at work, and I filed that from the UK (because we had to before they would allow Nic a visa even though I didn't work in the US at all during that tax year). I don't know where it is, and I certainly don't know, off hand, the exact amounts of taxable income or other information that she was requesting. Suddenly, she flies off the handle and starts accusing me of trying to commit tax fraud, of calling on behalf of someone else, she can report me for this, and so on. Um, what??? She became very belligerent and refused to give me any information, even just to tell me which freaking form I need so that I can get them the SSN information!
What a nightmare. Now I don't know how to get them the info and I can't call back because I'm sure that they have me listed as a criminal mastermind since I couldn't, from work, recite every detail of my 2003 tax return. Could you?
Friday, March 11, 2005
Home Again
Well, we're off tomorrow for another lovely two weeks in San Diego. No daddy this time, a first for me. Not only on the plane, but not having daddy to help with the day to day job of parenting will be a challenge (and an exhausting one at that!). Hopefully grandma, grandpa, and aunt Amanda will step in (though they'll never come close to filling the shoes of our Super Dad).
We've recently started a playgroup with our friends from Kellan's weekly baby group. Most of our guys were getting too big for that group anyway, so we gathered together our group of friends, set up a weekly meeting time and home rotation, and off we went. Its been wonderful, a couple of social hours every Wednesday, chatting, eating, letting the kids play together and try out different toys.
Kellan is still on the nebulizer. We've just had to buy him one, in fact, since our 30 day rental is up and its not worth renting it again when $5 more will buy one. His grandfather (on my husband's side) suffers from severe asthma and we're worried that he may have a bit of a genetically weak chest. Lets hope its just the final bits of these winter illnesses and that spring will bring a return of both warm weather and clear lungs.
We've recently started a playgroup with our friends from Kellan's weekly baby group. Most of our guys were getting too big for that group anyway, so we gathered together our group of friends, set up a weekly meeting time and home rotation, and off we went. Its been wonderful, a couple of social hours every Wednesday, chatting, eating, letting the kids play together and try out different toys.
Kellan is still on the nebulizer. We've just had to buy him one, in fact, since our 30 day rental is up and its not worth renting it again when $5 more will buy one. His grandfather (on my husband's side) suffers from severe asthma and we're worried that he may have a bit of a genetically weak chest. Lets hope its just the final bits of these winter illnesses and that spring will bring a return of both warm weather and clear lungs.
Monday, March 07, 2005
Have you ever...
put your head down on your desk, just for a second, just because you haven't closed your eyes properly in days and you thought that maybe a quick rest would help to get you through the next 4 1/2 hours, and actually fallen asleep at work??? Good grief, I need sleep.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Too Tired to Post
Its been awhile. Since I slept, that is. First there was the RSV and ear infection. Then he had to be injected with antibiotics because he refused to take them orally, which resulted in a nasty case of thrush in the diaper region and a very sick stomach. Now there's, well, quite frankly, I don't know what. But he's had me up most of the night all this week. I think that it may be teeth again, as they do seem to give him a lot of trouble. He's incredibly restless, can't seem to settle, wakes up every half hour and can't get himself back to sleep. He's in and out of our bed. Doesn't want to be by himself, but then he's too cramped in our bed [note to self: never do this again without a King Size Bed!]. He's so tired that he bangs his head on the crib or on the wall while crawling all over the place at 2am trying to decide where he wants to be, and then we all get to hear about it (including the upstairs neighbours). He's fussy during the day, whines constantly. He may be coming down with something I suppose, but the duration, lack of fever or other symptoms, and constant drool plus fingers in mouth lead me to the teething conclusion. Last night he nursed Six Times! I was late for work this morning after having fallen asleep again after my shower while giving him a cuddle in bed.
This is all complicated by the fact that Kellan refuses to take any medication by mouth in any form. He will not have it mixed with food or drink. He will not have chewables or "melt-aways". He knows medicine and he will have nothing to do with it. I managed to get a couple of the toddler Tylenols (his doctor said it was fine to try them because he's so big) into him by grinding them to a fine powder and mixing with very rich chocolate ice cream. I felt so triumphant! But still, he only slept from 8:30pm-11:30pm because of my efforts. I was disappointed until he had me up every 30-60 minutes for the rest of the night -- I guess that three hours was a real accomplishment!
This is all complicated by the fact that Kellan refuses to take any medication by mouth in any form. He will not have it mixed with food or drink. He will not have chewables or "melt-aways". He knows medicine and he will have nothing to do with it. I managed to get a couple of the toddler Tylenols (his doctor said it was fine to try them because he's so big) into him by grinding them to a fine powder and mixing with very rich chocolate ice cream. I felt so triumphant! But still, he only slept from 8:30pm-11:30pm because of my efforts. I was disappointed until he had me up every 30-60 minutes for the rest of the night -- I guess that three hours was a real accomplishment!
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