Friday, April 25, 2008

The Picture of Motherhood......


The lovely ladies at Five Minutes for Mom are running another great contest -- how do they keep coming up with them???? This time, in honor of Mothers Day, they're looking for the photo that best captures "Motherhood".


There are so many many photos I've taken of the boys that shout out the theme to me, but there is one in particular that I can't get out of my mind. I took this photo about two years ago when CutiePie was four years old. I'd taken him to a local Greek Festival and he begged me to go on one of the rides. I have to admit, I was suspicious of the safety of the ride and really didn't think it was going to be a good way to spend my limited money that day. In the end, CutiePie's pleas wore me down and I bought the overpriced slips of colored paper that let him on the ride. When the carney measured him at the gate and he justbarelymadetheheightcutoff, he looked back at me and smiled one of the biggest smiles I've ever seen from him. Then, I watched as a stranger strapped my precious baby into a plastic swing and the ride lifted him into the air. As he spun around, faster and faster, the wind lifted his hair and his expression changed from one of joy to ecstasy!
When we first met CutiePie in his Siberian orphanage, he didn't smile. Not at all. He was sad and scared and timid. He couldn't even imagine a world where kids can fly through the air while loving parents shower them with waves and shouts and laughs and the flash of cameras. Just a year and a half later, he was able to experience this moment of true happiness - and through him, so did I.

I was watching over him, but he was flying in his own blissful world, off on his own adventure in the sky, while Mom stayed safely on the ground. And isn't that really what being a Mother is about????


Frugal Friday

Since I've been making such a concerted effort to save money this year, I've really gotten into reading blogs dedicated to finances and frugality. When I discovered the Frugal Friday meme, it just seemed natural for me to join in, so here goes......


I had to fill a prescription today. In the past, I'd just drive down to my local CVS and fill it there. We've got a pretty good health plan, so even "expensive" prescriptions cost us no more than $15. In this case, CutiePie's doctor was pretty sure that our insurance wouldn't cover this particular drug unless "medically necessary", which it's not -- the doctor just prefers it over the other options. So, he gave us a coupon for a free month's prescription, so we can debate with the insurance company during that time. Anyway, instead of just doing what I've always done, thoughtlessly, without a plan, this time, I called all the local pharmacies to see who was having a special this week. I found that Target had a coupon in their flyer that offered a $10 gift card with every new prescription!!!! So, I went to Target this morning and walked out with a FREE months' prescription AND a $10 gift card!!!! I didn't pay a thing!

I'm going to go back before this deal ends on May 5th and fill the prescription for the other med the doctor prescribed!!!!

I think that's pretty frugal, don't you??????

Friday's Feast

Brought to you by Friday Feast........

Appetizer
Name something you would categorize as weird.

How some families choose children's names --- either using a single letter as the first letter of ALL the names or assigning names based on a theme (alphabetically or all cities or all flowers or all foods, etc....). I'd never tell anyone what to name their child, but still....... there's some strange names out there!

Soup
What color was the last piece of food you ate?

Beige and red --- it was Matzo Pizza. Yummmmmmm!

Salad
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy being alone?

8. I really like being alone for the most part. I also like being with people, but I do enjoy solitude! I usually feel very comfortable when I'm alone and I've even gone on vacation by myself and had a fabulous time! I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Main Course
Fill in the blank: I will _________ vote for ___________ in _______.

I will ABSOLUTELY vote for THE DEMOCRAT in NOVEMBER.

Dessert
Describe your sleeping habits.

Love it. I love to sleep. I spent many many years as an insomniac, so I think I'm just catching up for lost time (and lost sleep) now! Of course, I can't stay up as late as I used to anymore. I'm usually asleep by 11pm and up around 7:30am. Before the kids, I would fall asleep on the couch very often -- now, I make a point to go to sleep in my bed. I'll still occasionally drift off on the couch while trying to watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but usually I do the bulk of my sleeping in my bed!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Good news!

I got an email from the OT department at the children's hospital last night and CutiePie will begin his OT in two weeks! Yay! I'm not sure that we're going to notice a HUGE difference due to the therapy, but any little bit is a good thing!

In the meantime, he's had three good days in a row at school! They weren't perfect, but they were good enough to get him a sticker each day. When he gets five stickers, the whole class will get an extra playtime. So, his classmates are encouraging him to be good because they will benefit also. Keep your fingers crossed!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The contents of CutiePie's bookbag......

When I opened CutiePie's bookbag tonight to review his work, here's what I found:

Notebook
Homework folder
Extended Day folder
Scrap paper
Three art projects
and........... (drumroll please)................................



a three-day old squished banana all over the inside bottom.


EWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!

I hate surprises!

Just because you asked!!!!

Okay, here it is....... an actual, real, honest-to-goodness post from me! Where has Perky's perspective been focused lately???? Well, for starters (in no particular order).......


* Passover. I love this holiday. Really, I do! It's just that it's a lot of work. A LOT. And I'm not even really observant! We didn't even hold a seder at home this year, so I don't know why I'm complaining. We went to a friend's house for the first seder and had a very nice time. Then, I co-coordinated a Community Seder at my synagogue for the second night, which was a lot of work, but very rewarding! Now, for the rest of the week, I'm just trying to stay on top of the minimal dietary requirements I observe during this holiday. I don't keep Kosher in general, but I do try to observe Passover by not eating any Chametz (items made from wheat and such that are not a product of Matzo). By this point in the week, I'm getting just a little tired of packing full lunches and snacks for me and the boys every day. Since all the cafeteria lunches and school snacks are off limits this week, I have to be sure to give the boys lots of choices so they have something yummy to eat at each point during the day.

* Spring. Loving it!!!! I don't mind winter, but I love me some spring weather! I feel so much more energetic already! My flowers are blooming and I even have a bouquet of purple Money Plant flowers on my desk that I picked from my front yard this morning. Love it!

* The Election. I'm glad the primary is over, but I don't think it got us any closer to resolution. For years, I've been waiting for a candidate that I can get excited about and now I've got two of them, which of course, keeps me from getting overly excited about either one. It's not fair!

* CutiePie. Since the beginning of the year, we've been focusing on what is going on with CutiePie. He started having serious problems in kindergarten last fall and they didn't get better with time. Everyone around us started throwing around "ADHD" so we got a referral for the local children's hospital's ADHD clinic and started our paperwork. We submitted it in January and got ready to wait. And wait. And wait. And we did. And have. In the meantime, we contacted the developmental pediatrician who saw him when he first got here. She wasn't ready to diagnose ADHD, but rather, she was seeing developmental issues. So, she sent us to a developmental optometrist. Apparently, CutiePie sees clearly, but is having a hard time tracking with both eyes together and cannot hold focus as he moves his eyes. This may be a large part of what is making classwork hard and then he responds to the pressure by acting goofy. Interesting. So now, CutiePie is sporting some oh-so-fashionable frames and the glasses are supposed to help train his eyes. He also goes to vision therapy for an hour each week. We expect this to go on for about a year. In the meantime, he's also been seen by an allergist who prescribed meds to help him breathe better, which may help him sleep better, which may help him focus better during the day. Sounds good. And then we'll be starting to see an occupational therapist soon to help him with some eye-hand coordination stuff. Which seems odd because this kid has GREAT eye-hand coordination, so maybe I just didn't fully understand what they're going to work on.

After all that, of course, the ADHD clinic calls to schedule an appointment. Which naturally isn't until the day before school ends!!!!! Great timing, guys! That's really helpful! Anyway, at least by the time we see them, we'll be able to say if any of this other stuff has been helpful at all.

HandsomeBoy? He's fine.

* My company. We recently moved from our original location to a great new location. I'm so much happier here! My office space is great (relatively speaking), the neighborhood is fantastic and everything just seems so much better! Of course, with the new network, I'm unable to log in from home right now, so I've had to actually DRIVE IN TO WORK each day!!! What's with that? It's so 90's!!!!! Just kidding! But I do miss the ability to work from home. I should be set up to do it again next week and I'll be a very happy camper when that happens!

* Israel trip. Didn't happen. I was all set to go and finally getting REALLY excited about it. That's when RockStar realized I was really serious about it and he freaked out. Totally freaked out. Not because I was going away. Not because I was leaving him with the kids for 10 days. Not because it's not fair that I was going to spend money that we didn't have to go on a vacation I shouldn't be taking. No -- he freaked out because he was worried for my safety. He was certain that if I went, I'd be a terrorism statistic within 48 hours. I totally disagreed and tried to explain to him that I've been before, even when the situation was worse, and I felt completely safe the entire time. He wouldn't listen. After two days of this, I had to choose -- really great awesome trip to Israel or my marriage. Yeah, I chose RockStar. There'll be other trips. I'm still disappointed, but it's nice to know that he loves me enough to freak out over the (slim) chance of losing me!

* Money. This year is the year I get our finances in shape. Yeah, I know I've said that before, but I mean it this time. And I've been doing great. I'll blog more about this topic separately (really - I will! I promise!), but I'm proud of myself for the changes I've been making in our budget (wow - did I really use the "b" word????) and priorities. We have a whole bunch of debt that we shouldn't have and I'm going to put a huge dent in it this year!

* Me. I'm doing well, thankyouverymuch. I have a whole post brewing over my goals for this year. Before you remind me that we're already nearly a third of the way through the year, let me say that I've actually been working on and achieving many of my goals, so I'm off to a pretty good start!

* You. By "you" I mean of course the bloggyworld and my bloggyfriends. Even though I don't post much (uh, at all lately), I faithfully read your blogs and can't wait to hear what everyone is up to. I really look forward to each post. I find it hard to believe that anyone feels that way about my blog, but I'll pretend it's true and try to treat you to a little of my Perspective more often. Deal?????