The First Half of February
I guess things are beginning to improve around here. In no particular order:
Stephen is officially done with the DOC Band. His head shape is more normal than it once was; in other words, it is now longer than it is wide (when we started with the Band, it was wider than it was long). We're satisfied with the treatment and won't be getting another round. Not that we could afford it, even if we wanted to.
As you might remember, that chapter of Stephen's life started in October. Since then, we've made trips to San Diego every two weeks in order to get his head looked at and his Band adjusted. We won't miss taking these trips, as they were always early on weekday mornings when south-bound traffic on the I-15 was at its height.
On Friday of last week, we rose from our cozy bed and took our last drive to Cranial Technologies. As if to spite us, the traffic was downright light; we managed to get there ten minutes early (which is unheard of with us). Gods only know why, since we weren't leaving any earlier or later than we had usually been doing. Stephen was awake for the whole trip, and was as chipper as can be.
The exit procedure for the program includes a series of photographs from all angles, followed by another casting of the child's head. The original casting was such fun (that's me being sarcastic, by the way) that we fully anticipated a drop-down, drag-out fight with the boy over it.
He proved us wrong. While he fussed a bit in the beginning, and got the volume up near the middle (as the rear of the cast was being applied), we managed to rescue him with a piece of medical equipment which is as versatile as it is tasty: a "Dum-Dum" lollypop.
Stephen, never having sampled the delight of hard fruit-flavored candy on a stick, single-mindedly gnawed and slurped away at the sucker while the final touches were put on the cast. By the time we were done, his head was covered in white smears of dry plaster and blue smears of slimy, tart, sugary candy.
As a parting gift, they allowed us to keep his original head cast, the one that documents his head when he entered the program back in October. If nothing, it's an interesting conversation piece that we can break out when friends and relatives drop by.
Let's see. What else?
Money has been tight lately, given that I haven't had a full paycheck since I left my job at the tooth factory back in January. That changed on Friday, as I got my first complete paycheck at my new job. The pay increase is nice, even when you consider all the additional expenses: the higher cost of medical insurance and my 401k contribution. With luck, the days of scraping by are behind us...for a while, anyway. I plan to take my wife out to eat for her (belated) birthday, considering we didn't have the money for it on the 13th.
There's also the matter of taxes. Last year was the first year we got any kind of money back on our taxes since we'd been married. The '04 refund was due, in large part, to the fact that my wife wasn't working. In the prior years, due to the infamous "marriage penalty," we'd owed as much as $900 in back taxes. Not being made of money, this was always a very sore time of the year for us.
This year, thanks to the presence of a child under our roof, we're going to be getting a slew of cash back from the government. It should just about pay off our credit cards, which is what I intend to do with it. Having those things paid off will be a great big load off of my mind. It's not like we live off of them, but between my laptop and last year's convention schedule, we managed to rack up a couple of largish balances.
Oh, and dare I mention: our cats are fleabags. I have no idea why the fleas are so voracious this early in the the year, nor do I understand why they continue to bleed our pets dry despite regular treatments of Advantage. I need to get some more of the fleabane so that we can keep the little vampires at bay. Of course, treating the cats means that us humans are going to have dying parasites attacking us until they've all shuffled off this mortal coil and gone up to flea heaven.
So, that's about all for now. Sorry to have kept everyone in suspense, but it's been pretty hectic. The child is stirring his crib, and I must arise to rescue him. He's probably wet and hungry and wanting to watch Little Einsteins. Nonetheless, I will leave you with this photograph of him, taken this past week, lounging around watching the infamous (and, some say, insidious) Teletubbies.
Stephen is officially done with the DOC Band. His head shape is more normal than it once was; in other words, it is now longer than it is wide (when we started with the Band, it was wider than it was long). We're satisfied with the treatment and won't be getting another round. Not that we could afford it, even if we wanted to.
As you might remember, that chapter of Stephen's life started in October. Since then, we've made trips to San Diego every two weeks in order to get his head looked at and his Band adjusted. We won't miss taking these trips, as they were always early on weekday mornings when south-bound traffic on the I-15 was at its height.
On Friday of last week, we rose from our cozy bed and took our last drive to Cranial Technologies. As if to spite us, the traffic was downright light; we managed to get there ten minutes early (which is unheard of with us). Gods only know why, since we weren't leaving any earlier or later than we had usually been doing. Stephen was awake for the whole trip, and was as chipper as can be.
The exit procedure for the program includes a series of photographs from all angles, followed by another casting of the child's head. The original casting was such fun (that's me being sarcastic, by the way) that we fully anticipated a drop-down, drag-out fight with the boy over it.
He proved us wrong. While he fussed a bit in the beginning, and got the volume up near the middle (as the rear of the cast was being applied), we managed to rescue him with a piece of medical equipment which is as versatile as it is tasty: a "Dum-Dum" lollypop.
Stephen, never having sampled the delight of hard fruit-flavored candy on a stick, single-mindedly gnawed and slurped away at the sucker while the final touches were put on the cast. By the time we were done, his head was covered in white smears of dry plaster and blue smears of slimy, tart, sugary candy.
As a parting gift, they allowed us to keep his original head cast, the one that documents his head when he entered the program back in October. If nothing, it's an interesting conversation piece that we can break out when friends and relatives drop by.
Let's see. What else?
Money has been tight lately, given that I haven't had a full paycheck since I left my job at the tooth factory back in January. That changed on Friday, as I got my first complete paycheck at my new job. The pay increase is nice, even when you consider all the additional expenses: the higher cost of medical insurance and my 401k contribution. With luck, the days of scraping by are behind us...for a while, anyway. I plan to take my wife out to eat for her (belated) birthday, considering we didn't have the money for it on the 13th.
There's also the matter of taxes. Last year was the first year we got any kind of money back on our taxes since we'd been married. The '04 refund was due, in large part, to the fact that my wife wasn't working. In the prior years, due to the infamous "marriage penalty," we'd owed as much as $900 in back taxes. Not being made of money, this was always a very sore time of the year for us.
This year, thanks to the presence of a child under our roof, we're going to be getting a slew of cash back from the government. It should just about pay off our credit cards, which is what I intend to do with it. Having those things paid off will be a great big load off of my mind. It's not like we live off of them, but between my laptop and last year's convention schedule, we managed to rack up a couple of largish balances.
Oh, and dare I mention: our cats are fleabags. I have no idea why the fleas are so voracious this early in the the year, nor do I understand why they continue to bleed our pets dry despite regular treatments of Advantage. I need to get some more of the fleabane so that we can keep the little vampires at bay. Of course, treating the cats means that us humans are going to have dying parasites attacking us until they've all shuffled off this mortal coil and gone up to flea heaven.
So, that's about all for now. Sorry to have kept everyone in suspense, but it's been pretty hectic. The child is stirring his crib, and I must arise to rescue him. He's probably wet and hungry and wanting to watch Little Einsteins. Nonetheless, I will leave you with this photograph of him, taken this past week, lounging around watching the infamous (and, some say, insidious) Teletubbies.
posted by Gary at 7:22 AM
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