OK, so yesterday was William's preschool screening. This is where they check development to be sure there are no delays that should be addressed before starting school. They check vision, hearing, fine and gross motor skills, and cognitive development. Well, according to the results, William is blind, deaf, retarded, and has CP.
Yeah. He scored especially low in vocabulary because the only word he knows is "meow". She asked me if he can talk! I. Was. So. Mad.
One of the ways he was so infuriating is that when he DID cooperate (twice, I think) he aced it and scored very high, as high as Ben did (remember, it was Ben's pre school screening where I finally got validation that he is gifted). For example, she made a pyramid out of blocks and then gave him some and told him to copy her structure. He shook his head, closed his eyes oh so delicately, and smirked. I wheedled, cajoled, threatened. Finally he vveeerrrryyyyy slloowwwwllllllyyyy built a pyramid. So then she made a complicated structure with 2 blocks on the bottom, 3 in the middle, and 1 on top, so it looked kind of like a person and it required him to balance two of the blocks hanging over the edge of the bottom ones. No problem, he did it easily. But his cooperation stopped there. There were several points where she laughed out loud because of how silly he is with his eye rolling and expressions. I saw in one place that she had noted "Refused. Silly boy."
I really was mad, I was so mad I left the room and went and sat out by Max and Judy in the waiting area and Max actually held my hand. I kept saying "I'm not THAT mad!" and she looked at me with such sympathy I wanted to slap her. Or hiss and scratch.
Which reminds me, when I was desperately whispering at him to cooperate, he made kitty-slapping motions at me with his claws. There was an adult student in the room observing and she was cracking up back there.
So he can't talk, OK. Well, last night I was at work and Brian was taking the kids from home to Cambridge to meet Grandma for the weekend (Ana, Lij, Ben, and the Goddamned cat). They stopped by so I could say goodbye. I went to William to say goodbye and he said "Have fun at work. I'M going to grammas!". I looked at him and said "William, you let that lady think you can't talk." and he said "I can't."
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He has to be rescreened (I suppose it was either that or start making arrangements for a paraprofessional to follow him all day in kindergarten and help him eat and hold his crayon). I am so dreading the rescreening. I'm working hard to find something good to threaten him with before we go. Meow!
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Story from the nut house....last night we had a guy in who was very nice, pleasant, personable, and crazy as a coot. He is coming down off a psychotic break. So he asked me for a robe and I went and got him one, thinking he was cold or something. I gave it to him, he put it on, then he went to his room and came out with his leather belt around his waist and started doing kung fu karate stuff. It was hilarious!! I'm going to miss this kind of guy when I graduate and move on. I won't miss the detoxers, but the genuinely sick guys are entertaining. Oh, last weekend there was a dude who was sent over from the hospital after he had surgery to remove 6 self-inserted sewing needles from his balls.
.........
Some school mates and I went to a job fair last week at the Civic Center. There were two employers I found myself impressed with an interested in. The first is my current employer, the VA. The HR rep I spoke with was very knowledgeable and encouraging. She told us we could go over right away and fill out our apps, so we did that. Now, I"m not sure the KIND of work I'll do will be thrilling, but the benefits, especially the educational ones, can't be beat. They'll pay for my RN even if I only work part time. I think I need to work full time, though, because we need the health insurance too. We do have it through the bakery but it is weak and getting weaker. The deductible is currently 5,000 for the family for the year and it is very possible that will be increasing. The VA offers plans with no deductible and very affordable employee contributions. I'll need to move to a different unit though, because of the hours we need to make it work for us both to be working full time. I'll need an evening shift that doesn't go so darn late (I get out at midnight right now). Extended care offers 1 to 9 30 pm shifts and I think that will be ideal, at least during the summer when I can spend the day with the kids. Not sure about during the school year unless I can get 10 hour shifts and do weekends and 2 days per week. I can't not be home every evening and never see the school kids. Will just wait and see how things come together. I should also add I'm not gauranteed a job, but there are several openings so my chances are good.
The other employer that interested me was one I didn't expect. REM home health. I've heard that home care pays less, but that doesn't appear to be true. They are also very flexible; the lady I talked to said they are more than happy to work around another job, and even give you one shift a week if that's all you want. The reasons I would want to go ahead and try to do this are that 1) the VA is what I need right now (largely because of the educational benefits and excellent job security), but hospice and home care are what I want, and this would be a foot in the door 2) they have openings right here in cold spring 3) the pay is actually very good and there are a lot of incentives for evenings, weekends, etc. and 4) they have pediatric patients, so I could work with kids.
Graduation is now only about 5 weeks away!!! Whoo hoo!
So, the 3 big kids (and the Goddamned cat...) are now in Wisconsin until tomorrow and Brian is at a funeral. I'm home alone with Muffins and he is in his night nights with his two funny teeth. Ah, sweet freedom! What shall I do with myself? I just went to the bathroom ALONE! Nobody watched me wipe my butt! Yay! They are probably watching my parents do that instead.
I will mom in cambridge some time tomorrow to get them. I better get going with the gazillion and one things I need to do in their absence.
PS Meow.
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