Sunday, September 07, 2008

Introducing Bean:




Brothers:




This is one of the best purchases I've made for Peanut. It's a dry-erase alphabet from the dollar bin at T@rget. I went through all the letters once with Peanut then left him to his own devices. His handwriting is very shaky and he doesn't draw the lines for the letters in the correct sequence, but I think he's doing an amazing job. This was only the 3rd or 4th time he'd ever drawn letters.

Mom visited for the weekend. Hubby graciously offered to do all the driving (12 hours in all) so I could stay home with Bean who has his first cold.

Mom is doing very well. She's the calmest and most stable I've seen her in over a year and a half. Her hearing was last week and she's been placed on discharge status. She'll be monitored for two months and has to meet certain criteria, then they will work with her community liaison to place her. We had a nice visit without any conflicts. Peanut loved hanging out with her and went on both the trip to pick her up and the return trip. He was sad that she had to go back but handled it very well.

I'm concerned about where she'll be placed and need to talk with her liaison. They've discussed elderly housing - some sort of apartment or efficiency which sounds great to me, as long as Mom doesn't isolate herself. I need to find out if they offer any activities for the residents and how often they are. Mom is expecting to be kept busy, and I'm not sure if anyplace will live up to her expectations. I need to make the liaison aware of that, and make sure Mom has an idea of what she'll be getting (or not getting) - whether it sinks in or not. Mom also ran by me the posibility of moving back into her trailer with a roommate. BAD IDEA. I don't know who she would live with, the place is tiny, and the park doesn't allow rentals/roommates. My plan is to get her moved into wherever she is placed and sell the trailer.

She's supposed to get hearing aids sometime before she's discharged. This is wonderful news as they are too expensive for her to purchase and Medicare doesn't cover them. She still needs dentures, nearly a year after her set disappeared. The hospital was supposed to provide replacements, but at least that's something she can afford on her own.

***

Bean is such a mellow, sweet baby. He's sleeping 9-11 hours a night and falls asleep on his own when put to bed. Peanut still requires back-scratching and company to fall asleep. Even with a cold and lots of sniffles and snuffles, Bean is happy and sleeping well - his brother would have been miserable and cried most of the night. I just can't get over the difference between the two. I'm not complaining - although Peanut was difficult at times, he was a sweet baby, too, and his strong will got him through his preemie-ness to the great little guy he is now.

***

I'm so proud of Hubby. One of his married coworkers has an ongoing infatuation/flirtation with a girl at one of their off-duty details. Hubby has been telling him all along that he's stupid and is jeopardizing his marriage and family. Sure enough, his wife found out about the girl, and I do mean girl. She graduated from high school this year and is only two years older than his eldest child. His wife is threatening divorce and to take the kids and move back overseas to her family. The kids know something is up - eldest knows who the girl is and is pissed.

The coworker stopped by the detail last night after another argument with his wife. Hubby told him to leave and not bother talking with flirty girl, knowing his wife would most likely ask about it. In a nutshell, he's told the coworker he is a dumbass for jeopardizing nearly two decades of marriage and his family, and that if he wants to stay married (which he claims he does) he needs to cut all ties with the girl, including no longer working that specific detail. He offered to help find a replacement shift someplace else if his friend needs the money. The rest of his advice was that if the friend really thinks he and the girl have a future together, he needs to get divorced, let her grow up a few years, then give it a go.