Not the most spectacular Halloween

It has just been a day. Michael has been up for several hours a night since last week and trying to sleep with us which is not working at all - John sleeps with a lot of pillows and I'm at that lovely stage in pregnancy where I just can't get comfortable enough to get into the deep sleep I really need. Needless to say, sleep-deprived mama and child are not the best of mixes. If the disturbances in Michael's sleep are still happening by the weekend, we'll be going back to the air mattress in his room again.

We had Michael's "pyjama party" this morning at his preschool - I'm not sure if it's a school policy or a teacher policy that Halloween was not mentioned, but I'm going to find out. The party was a complete disaster from my point of view. The parents arrived at 10am and I figured we were going to go right into the food after the kids played and showed us stuff and what not. No, we did not sit down to eat until after noon - eighteen kids and close to two dozen parents in the classroom. I hit sensory (and heat) overload after just thirty minutes. Michael had a steady stream of small meltdowns and by the time we did get to eat, he wasn't the only crying kid there. We ended up leaving at one so we could catch the direct bus home - after he had downed several Hi-C drink boxes and received two goody bags from classmates (who in their right mind puts pixie sticks in a goody bag for a 3/4 year-old?).

I am definitely going to have a talk with someone about this. I can't speak for other parents, but my kid can't cope with that much sensory input - a class visit would have been nice, all of us crammed in there for two and a half hours before eating was way too much. The food was fine, but I would like to see beverages limited to 100% juice. I am not the most uptight person when it comes to nutrition and firmly believe in the "everything in moderation" rule, but over stimulated three year-old and free access to red-dyed sugar water drink boxes do not a good mix make - trust me when I say that taking them away or finding a way to restrict access to them would not have been pretty. It's going to take days for him to get this out of his system. My mom, who was a preschool/daycare teacher herself for a good 10 years, feels that this was a failing of the teacher, much firmer guidelines need to be in place. I guess my position as classroom representative may come in handy after all.

Since the remainder of the afternoon and evening has been spent in various stages of melt-down or hyperactivity, trick-or-treating is pretty much out of the question. We got his costume on him (flannel, overalls and an engineer's cap) and he wanted it off immediately. We asked him several times if he wanted to go out and each time were told no. It's really for the best - God knows the last thing he needs is more candy. John and I are a bit disappointed, but neither of us can cope with much more at this point. The thing that really sucks about today is I didn't have the energy to make John's pumpkin cake with cream-cheese frosting for his birthday. Ah well, something to look forward to on Friday since I'm sure tomorrow will be spent in recovery.

Sorry to my friends out there - I just don't have the energy to call and bitch about this in person right now. I'll try and talk to you all in the next few days when I'm not quite so exhausted and raw.

Happy Halloween All!

Thou shall not piss off the pregnant woman

For she will write letters full of vitriol and cc everyone she can think of.

Michael has missed school twice this week because the bus hasn't shown up and I've been under the weather enough that taking Septa to drop him off at school is pretty much out of the question. John is calling the program director this afternoon and hopefully something will actually get done. I can appreciate the fact that the school has no control over the bus company, but the fact that no one calls to let us know what the hell is going on and the only way we get the piddly amount of information we do have on the situation is because we call repeatedly is ludicrous. We called three times this morning, the first two we were told that the bus was on it's way, the third time we were told that the bus had been and gone to the school. Why on earth did I have to call the school myself to find out this information after waiting for an extra 30 minutes outside for a bus that wasn't coming?

Preschool is one thing - the fact that Michael has missed two days of therapy this week because of screw-ups is unacceptable. Either fix the f&*(ing problem, or let me know it can't be fixed so I can make other arrangements.

A Fine Kettle of Fish

Looks like I will be making the 20 block trek to take Michael to school for at least another week. I love the teachers and the therapists at his school, the administration leaves more than a bit to be desired. Three weeks ago I was told by his teacher that we needed to bring them to school ourselves on the first day and that the parents would be staying with the kids. I arrived there on Friday with Michael only to find out that they sent letters saying the kids would be bussed that day and to be looked at like I had three heads when I asked about staying. Since I only had one token (I was expecting to walk to John's work and then into town where I could buy more for the trip home), I ended up having to spend $6 in addition to the tokens I bough for the trip home. After I cooled down a bit from the screw-up, I called the school to make sure the bus wasn't waiting to take him home that day (I was way too mad to do this in person at the time). The school's secretary thanked me for letting her know, apologised for the mix-up, and verified my address on the list she was making up for the bus company.

All seemed to be well.

Monday morning we all sat on the front steps waiting for the bus.

I called at 8.15 and was told the bus was coming, it was the first day and it would likely be a little wonky for the first week or so until all the kinks were worked out. I could accept this. I didn't like it and thought it was highly unprofessional, but I could accept it.

I called again at 8.50 and spoke to the program director. I was told that both of the buses had been and gone. Why wasn't Michael picked up? I mentioned that I spoke with the secretary on Friday and was told that she was preparing the list for the bus company. The director told me that any changes to the busing list take 5-7 day to implement. I told her no, he's been on that list since the beginning of August and in fact I signed the paperwork for busing back in May. No real response back from them. I said my husband was now late for work, I was late for a doctor's appointment and there was no way I could get Michael over there that day and get done what I needed to do. On top of all of this I am 20 weeks pregnant - I had really counted on being able to get my adjustment and enjoy that post-adjustment bliss with the newspaper and a cup of coffee. It took all of my strength not to scream at this woman. It did all work out well in the end. I took Michael to my chiro appointment and he did very well and by some miracle my blood pressure had returned to almost normal by the time I had my OB appointment that afternoon.

I just got off the phone with the school again. They do not know when Michael will be on the list - probably not until the end of next week. They seem to be leaning towards this being the bus company's fault, but I'm sure they are not without blame. I did get my jab in that I live 20 blocks away from the school and it costs me 4 tokens to get Michael there and to go up to John's library while he's in school since it makes no sense for me to come all the way home to only have to leave again in an hour to go pick him up (the secretary was very contrite about this). Instead of all of this wonderful free-time, going a little crazy missing him in my empty house, getting much needed work done, and spending a little one-on-one time with my husband, I doing exactly what I was doing all summer, except now three times a week.

I really could just spit and it's taking all of my strength not to load this up with tons of expletives. Frankly, what I really feel like doing is crying. Why the hell does it have to be so hard and who in God's name has it in for me?

---

ETA

Just so this doesn't sound like a complete pity party on my account (oh woe, I don't get my free time), I was just reminded of the other part of the equation. The week leading up to the first day of school, all I did was talk up how mommy was going to bring him to school and stay with him to Michael. We've also been talking up the yellow school bus he's going to take to school as well. Thank God he's been accepting of all of these changes. My own issues aside, the situations in this house for the past several weeks have really put him through the wringer - we've asked so much from him and exposed him to so many scary emotions it's a wonder we haven't seen more problems than the bit of pacifier regression that's surfaced. I need for us to have the routine that school provides to help him and me regain our footing and this is not helping either of us.