New Jersey Mom’s Blog today, talking about how much of my day is spent trying to find little pieces of toys, remote controls, etc. I hope you will check it out!
Yep, that’s where I’ve been lately. I just can’t seem to get out from under it! After being denied Social Security Disability benefits, there’s been paperwork for obtaining a lawyer, and then I almost REALLY messed up. Social Security says that you have 60 days to tell them that you are appealing the decision, but NOWHERE does it say you have to have all your paperwork in within that 60 days! So, I had like ten days to get it all in.
I applied for Food Stamps today. It looks like it’s going to be close. They don’t seem to take into account things like credit card debt, health care costs, etc. I honestly (stupidly?) admitted that we are getting some help from our parents. In New Jersey a family of three has to earn less than about $2000.00 a month! Hello, rent? Doctor’s bills? Insurance? We spend way more than what goes out of this household, we have to. I just called the Food Stamp people to make sure if I am correct. You have to meet the poverty level. If you don’t then they do not take into account rent, daycare, etc. Sigh. Oh, and they gave me more paperwork to fill out.
And now we have tax time approaching. I am freaking out. I add up all of our medical expenses and mileage to doctors which takes FOREVER. I just don’t know how it’s all going to get done.
I feel like there is no time for me to do anything fun, and if I am doing something fun, I should really be doing paperwork.
Courtesy tickets were provided to me by the Liberty Science Center.
My family along with our friend visited the Liberty Science Center on Saturday. We headed first to the center’s popular exhibition “A T. Rex Named Sue”, which is a cast of the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil ever found. I liked that you could get fairly up close and personal with Sue and there are also a lot of activities for kids to touch and even smell as they learn about dinosaurs. It is a great way to introduce your little ones to dinosaurs. Hurry, the last day is March 14th for this exhibit.
My biggest worry of the day was whether or not my newly trained son would have an accident. I took him to the restroom and he freaked out because he was scared of the loud flushing sound. Some woman yelled at him to stop screaming and I wanted to beat her up for yelling at MY child. I couldn’t get him to go potty so luckily I was able to find a mom who had a diaper in his size. Now Tyler was saying he was hungry and wanted to go home.
But after some mac and cheese and a soothing cupcake he was ready for more adventures. We next headed to what I knew would be a hit with my active three-and-a-half-year-old, “I Explore”. This is an interactive exhibit designed only for children ages 2-5. Tyler enjoyed making the Ball Machine work and making and playing with race cars, but I knew his favorite would be the enclosed climbing structure where you try to make it to the top by climbing, walking up ramps and pulling yourself up to the next level. Here is his, victorious!
We also checked out the “Wonder Why: Observe, Imagine and Create” exhibit, where Tyler especially enjoyed making giant bubbles, and the rock climbing wall, with some help from Daddy, of course:
Our last stop was “Eat and Be Eaten”, where Tyler could look at all the gross animals he wanted to. His favorites were the Poison Dart Frogs and the Spiders (reminded him of Spiderman), but there were plenty of snakes, turtles and cockroaches, among other beings.
What more could you do with a three-and-a-half-year-old except hit the gift shop for some dinosaur souvenirs (mostly lost already) and head home?
I really like the Liberty Science Center because there is something for children of all ages and there was plenty we could not get to because Tyler still doesn’t have the understanding or stamina for some of the exhibits. As your children get older, it’s new for them every time they visit.
And wouldn’t you know Tyler “held it” all day? No peeing in diapers for this kid, although we do have to work on his fear of public toilet flushers.
…New Jersey Moms Blog today, talking about no gifts for children’s birthday parties in certain circumstances. Hope you will check it out!
On Saturday Tyler had a birthday party to go to which started at 11:00. Ugh, mornings are very hard for me. The three of us were supposed to go but Grant wasn’t feeling well. I think my depression and anxiety meds are starting to kick in and my pain wasn’t too bad so I decided I would take him myself. Plus, I just didn’t want to disappoint Tyler.
It was a hard day but no one knows I am sick and I felt like such a “normal” mom, helping him get his food, playing with him and just watching out for him. My favorite part was when he sat on my lap watching the magician. I looked around at all the other kids sitting on their parents’ laps or near them and it felt so good to be at the party, having fun with my son and looking like everyone else. And I know Tyler had a great time.
Plus no pee or poop accidents! I was very proud! Here’s to more “normal” good times with my child.
It was a rough three days but we all managed to get through it with Tyler having less accidents and Tyler coming up with gems such as, “Pee pee coming out!” and “I’m listening to my body.”
I sent him to school in Pull-ups today but spoke with his teacher and she said we should try “big boy” underwear tomorrow! This is a victory because he does better at school than he does at home. So tomorrow, armed with several pairs of underwear, socks, shoes and clothes, we will give it a go!
Something very cute to come out of this weekend: Tyler insisted on standing up to pee, and we have never taught him that! And his aim seems even better than his father’s! I’m so proud of my little man.
As this is a three day weekend, my husband and I decided to just put Tyler in underwear and see what happens. The score being 10 ACCIDENTS to 5 successful trips to the potty. This is harder than when he was a newborn. After a while we stripped him down to just his underwear, and finally, buck naked down below. Grant and I got so exhausted changing clothes and doing laundry, and being CHEERFUL and PATIENT.
I’m really feeling it today, I am totally exhausted. Sometimes I feel like, Why doesn’t my child just GET IT already?? The feeling to to put Tyler in a sensory deprivation room with just a potty is powerful. He just gets so involved in television or playing.
One end of the night victory was that he did go poop in his potty. At which point he told me, “It looks like a caterpillar”.
Two more days to see if we will be successful. This could be the death of me. Oh, yeah, Happy Valentine’s Day.
My nearly three-and-a-half-year-old son is still not potty trained. He’s been in Pull-ups since last June, sometimes he gets it and sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes he would make great strides only to regress. We’ve tried the stars leading to prizes, chocolates as rewards and ignoring it altogether to take the pressure off him.
I wouldn’t mind so much except this is holding him back from the next class in pre-school. My poor son is the only child in his class born in 2006 and even worse, he is very tall for his age. Not to mention I am really tired of changing poopy diapers for my only child, the continued expense of diapers and the higher tuition for children still in diapers or Pull-ups.
So this weekend plus Monday we are just going to put him in underwear and pray. I’ve gotten him all his favorite characters which he seems really excited about. Also we are going to buy him his own potty as we had always used a step stool and smaller potty on top of our toilet. I’ll try to pick up some cheap winter sweats (hopefully), plus his own little couch and hope for the best.
I really hope he gets it. I know he has it in him, but do I?
The other day for no particular reason Tyler looked at me and said, “Shut up, Mommy.” I was shocked at my three-year-old’s language. Where had he learned that from? We didn’t say “shut up” at home. Was a teacher at daycare telling him to “shut up”?
I said, “Tyler, saying “shut up” to someone is a bad thing to say and we don’t say that to anyone. Where did you learn this?” And he looked at me innocently and said, “Bugs Bunny.” I realized that he had seen the Bugs Bunny cartoon Bugs and Thugs, which also has given us the classic quote “Shut up shuttin’ up”.
Truthfully this is one of my favorite Bugs cartoons. It’s hard to be angry when your child picks up a phrase so innocently. I just hope he doesn’t try to hit me with an anvil from Acme products in the future.
On January 22nd my husband and I emailed our family doctor two letters that would help us with getting food stamps and appealing my disabilty turn-down and starting my husband’s disability case. We literally wrote the letters for him, all he had to do was to print it out on his letterhead and sign it.
Today is February 8th and has this been done? No! Have I called, has my husband called several times? Yes!
Not to pick on this one doctor, for the most part they all seem to be this way. I know they are busy, but literally these letters make the difference between how fast we will burn through our money, possibly leading to bankrupcy and how fast we can get our disability processes restarted and started.
I honestly don’t get it. My only wish is that a doctor or a friend of a doctor would see this post and realize that when we ask for these letters, they are needed as soon as possible and are very serious for patient’s cases.
