ups and downs, but mostly ups this week

Two rather remarkable events took place today. The first was when Punkin crawled into my bed this morning and I discovered that his hair was perfectly coifed for picture day. It made up for having to get up two minutes later when he ran into the bathroom for a morning pee and plopped his stuffed snake in the toilet. Well, it kind of made up for that. It helped anyway.

The second was when he reportedly pooped in the potty at school without stripping naked and perching on the seat like a cross -legged bird. I don't care what the kid does at home, but undressing and redressing in public is becoming rather tedious. Does anyone else's child do this?

Kindergarten is going really well. We've had a few small upsets including one rather violent display of affection stemming from feelings of jealousy when another boy was holding hands with his friend. He literally tackled them both and attempted to pry their hands apart. I tried really hard not to giggle as I talked to him about how sometimes it's another friend's turn to hold her hand. And if he wants to hold her hand, he needs to ask, "Can I hold your hand, please?"

He's also a smidge impatient at lunch/recess. He inhales his lunch and thinks he can immediately go play outside. Not so much; you have to wait for the rest of the kids, buddy. So I guess he threw his tray yesterday and his milk today. We had another talk. "We sit and wait. No throwing tray, blah blah blah." Apparently the lunch lady is rather amused by the faces he makes while he sits in time out. I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds it funny!

briefly

I give up trying to write about our trip. I quit. I'm done except to show you this adorable photo and to tell you that my son is an angel. AN ANGEL. He was perfect in the airport on the way there, only anxious at the security check that his backpack and blanket might not be returned to him, and ecstatic when they came out the other side of the metal box.

Two other things made him very happy -- repeatedly yelling "blast off!" on the plane and watching the luggage carousel spin around once we landed.

On the way back, however, we had a bit of a meltdown in the airport that resulted in an employee approaching us to ensure everything was okay. I'm sure everyone was staring, but honestly, when Punkin's screaming and smacking his face, usually all I can see is him, all I can hear and focus on is him. I just worked on keeping him safe until a distraction (candy and a puppy) were found.

Now without further ado, my son collapsed on the front steps at 10:30pm:

Okay, fine. Here's another picture. But only to help me make another point. And that is, WHY OH WHY do they make the trailers on these trucks detach from the cabs? Why must the toy makers torture me?

The family member we went to visit generously allowed Punkin to pick out two trucks like this and I have spent every moment since putting them back together. It is a pretty sweet truck, though, isn't it? It even says NASCAR on the side. I know, right?

my dollars!

He lost a tooth, you guys. And he must have swallowed it because it's nowhere to be found. I have no idea if he understands that the Tooth Fairy brought this money, but he definitely understands that it is his!

feeling crabby

I have a post to write about our recent trip, which is the reason for my lack of posting, but I left my camera with the photos at my mom and dad's house. And we all know that you need photos of Punkin to complete a story about Punkin. So in the meantime I will leave you with the following annoyance.

Back in April I took Punkin to the hospital while we were visiting family out of state. It was a short visit but of course cost a fortune as all things at the hospital do, and a few months later I started receiving bills. Since I don't receive any explanation of benefits, as I was promised, from his primary insurance that is under his father's name, I assumed that the bills were what was left over after the primary insurance paid and his secondary insurance -- Medicaid -- refused to pay.

I paid small amounts and then finally one day decided to call them to make sure that Medicaid did in fact refuse to pay. Come to find out they didn't have his Medicaid information on file. What they did with the piece of paper I wrote it on I don't know, but that's not a big deal.

So one bill is taken care of, but I keep receiving bills from another place -- it must have be the actual physician and not the hospital. So I called them today and asked them to make sure they had Punkin's Medicaid number and assumed it would be a simple fix. You know what they say about assuming!

Turns out the primary insurance hasn't sent any payment or correspondence back to them, so they can't bill a secondary insurance even if they did have it on file (which they didn't, of course). They told me to call the insurance company and sort things out. Well, the insurance company won't talk to me because I'm not "authorized" and the policy isn't in my name, which is probably why I haven't been receiving any paperwork from them. Because someone (AHEM) chose not to authorize me.

So I called that someone and left a message asking him to please call them and give me permission to speak with the insurance company and to please sign and return the form they're mailing him. And that's the first time in four years I've had the privilege of contacting him. If this turns into a Thing, I don't even know. I might have to take up drinking only because I truly loathe talking on the phone and I envision this requiring a monumental number of calls.

everyone needs purple stripey shoes, right?

pretty sure i just saw a pig fly

Last Thursday I picked up Punkin from school and the aide in his room told me, "He ate a really good lunch. He didn't want the hamburger, he ate the peanut butter and jelly instead."

Woah. Wait. What?

My son? The child who routinely threw furniture on peanut butter and jelly day for the past three years? The one who matured enough last year to simply push his plate away and say, "No want it" but still refused to eat? That kid?

He chose it OVER a hamburger? Okay. Good to know.

what?

All I did was take off my clothes, drag a chair in here, and find the swimsuit you thought you cleverly hid in my bedroom closet. So when are you going to get it for me?