Well, not much is happening. Yesterday I took Alison to meet some friends for lunch and play at Chuck E. Cheese. All in all, it was not bad. She's big enough that I felt comfortable letting her go off and do her thing....as long as she only had about 4 tokens at a time. That way she had to keep coming back and checking in with me if she wanted more. She actually at two pieces of pizza and I didn't have to harp on her to get her to eat them either. I was stunned.

Today has been a pretty laid back day. I tried to sleep in this morning, but I've picked up Alison's cold and I woke up coughing and couldn't get back to sleep so I finally gave up and got up. After that, I accomplished nothing other than taking a nap this afternoon. So now I am wide awake when I should be thinking about going to bed. The time change tonight is going to make tomorrow really difficult!

I could have killed Kevin this morning. Alison said last night that she wanted to go out and play in (what's left of) the snow today. He thought about taking her sledding at the City Forest and I immediately vetoed that idea because she has school pictures again on Tuesday and an orthopedics appointment on Wednesday and I didn't want her coming home with her face smashed up or a broken bone, which is not outside the realm of possibility on the hill at City Forest. So they just went out and played in the yard instead. And he still managed to bring her in with one whole cheek, her upper lip, and her nose scratched up. He was pulling her around in on her sled and dumped her off and she did a face plant in the hard/icy snow. He assures me that it's going away and she will be fine by Tuesday, but I'm not so sure.

For the rest of the night, I'm going to ignore all the things I could/should be doing and kick back and watch a movie. I haven't decided which one yet....Pride and Prejudice with Kiera Knightly is on TV, but that's not my favorite version to watch and I don't know if I'll keep it on or not....so I guess I'll finish this up and peruse our movie collection to see if anything piques my interest.

Not a whole lot to write about today. Thursdays are kind of busy here, though. Alison started taking a new tap class last session, which is an hour later than her previous class, so she is able to be in choir at church now. So we go to choir, inhale some dinner afterwards (Subway, unless it's Papa John's pizza night for school) and then go to dance. Then Kevin comes and picks her up and I have my class. So that's what we did tonight. My class is going pretty well. It's a beginner class, and I'm not a beginner anymore, but it's still ok. I figure it's a fun way to get a little extra exercise.

Tomorrow, we're going to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch with a few friends. It should be a good time, at least for Alison. It caused a problem today, however. She was adamant that she was not supposed to ride the bus home because I was going to pick her up. I was standing at the bus stop when the school called me to see if she was supposed to ride the bus or not. The other to ladies picking up kids were like "they're still there." And I to say that yes, they were still there and it was Alison's fault because she wouldn't get on the bus. @@ They laughed. If it's not one thing it's another with this kid.

I've only been back at this blogging thing since Monday, and already I skipped a day.

Yesterday ended up being quite busy. Alison had PT in the afternoon. She actually did a really good job for a change, which Eileen and I were very happy about. From there, we raced over to a friend's house so she could have a playdate while Kevin and I went to a meeting with her teacher. She had a great time and we had a good meeting (more to follow). After that I raced back to pick Alison up. It took me nearly 20 minutes to get settled down enough to get her shoes and coat on so we could leave. Then we were off to Petsmart for a contribution for the Dog Lover's gift basket that her class is putting together for the silent auction at the school carnival next week. Then we were finally home for the evening.

The meeting with the teacher went well. We wanted to find out why her evaluation made it sound like she the worst child on the planet and no one had bothered to tell us. It really wasn't as bad as it sounded. We know she doesn't have poor self-help skills, but she'll often be in such a hurry to get back to whatever is going on in class that she doesn't always get her pants back up before she comes out of the bathroom. She's so easily distracted that it's very hard for her to get her work done, even when she's off by herself. Most everything goes back to the distractability. She can tell a great story, but her writing skills are not so good so she can't get it down on paper. We are working with her at home, and she's going to have an OT evaluation, which will likely result in OT for next year, so hopefully we'll get things straightened out. The teacher knows that we're as on top of things as we can be and she appreciates it.

For some reason, I woke up at 5:15 this morning. That really sucked, because I didn't need to be up for 2 more hours. I layed in bed trying to go back to sleep and finally succeeded between my 7:07 and 7:14 alarms. I have no idea why I woke up so early and I hope it doesn't happen again tomorrow.

This week, Kevin started working out in the mornings before work. It's been great for me because he can sign me up for the cardio machine of my choice, which lately has been the crosstrainer, and I don't have to worry about them all being taken when I get to the gym. I can just walking, hit the bathroom, and hop on my machine. Even better, he signs me up for the #1 crosstrainer, so I'm in front of a brick pillar and the person on the treadmill behind me can't see/watch me. I know it's highly unlikely that anyone behind is paying any attention to what I'm doing, but it makes me feel less self-conscious.

One other thing did happen today that I was not real pleased about. We take latex precautions with Alison bcause she's at high risk for developping a latex allergy. It's in her IEP that contact with latex is to be limited. So what does she tell me that she did in gym class today? They got to play with balloons! So I e-mailed the teacher to see if they were playing with latex balloons in gym and, if so, could she please tell/remind the gym teacher that Alison isn't supposed to be around latex, and if the balloons weren't latex, could she find out where they got them from. I didn't hear back today. Hopefully I'll hear something tomorrow.

So it's been a long time since I've blogged regularly. I've decided to give it a try again, though I don't know if I'll have much worthwhile to say. Today, Alison stayed home from school so we could see if her yo-yoing fever from yesterday was really gone or if it was merely yo-yoing again. It's been down all day, so she's back to school tomorrow, which is good because she has a playdate tomorrow afternoon while we go to a meeting with her teacher. There's a long involved story about why we're having a meeting with her teacher, but I don't have the time or energy to get into that right now. I had a pretty productive day around the house, since I was kind of tethered to it. I've got all the laundry washed and half of it put away, so that has to count for something. I also, finally, finished a blanket for Alison that I've been working on -- in fits and starts -- for nearly a year. It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.



That's about it from here. Time for me to do my part in getting Alison ready for bed, and then go off to bed myself. Back to school for her means back to the gym for me, so I need to get some sleep so I don't fall asleep on the crosstrainer. :)