Author: Doris

OK, I haven’t written over the past few days, but things have been going crazy around here. Here’s our schedule for the past 2 days. Remember that this whole time, Jeremy is swamped at work with crazy technical crap that has to get done soon before we leave in 3 weeks – so there are early meetings to attend, late calls, etc…

Yesterday,

8:30 am – drop Vince off at school
8:40 am – call cab to take Edda to school
9:00 am – get in cab
9:25 am – get Edda to school
9:50 am – walk in heat to go to (unexpected) parent support group
10:10 am – find myself in a room with 5 other mothers I’ve never met before with tales of woe
10:40 am – walk in heat back to school
11:00 am – find out Edda cried the whole time
11:05 am – hail a cab on hot sidewalk
11:25 am – pick Vince up from school
lunch, nap
3:00 pm – Jeremy heads home from work
3:00 pm – drop Vince off at neighbor’s house
3:05 pm – go to hospital
4:00 pm – Jermey goes to Vince’s parent-teacher conference
4:10 pm – Edda gets ultrasound of kidneys and bladder which are OK, but I had to ask an unsuspecting parent in the waiting room to help hold Edda’s legs still while I hold her arms while Edda screams her head off for 20 minutes
4:30 pm – Jeremy runs to bank to open checking account because therapy bill is overdue and will only take checks and we don’t have a checking account
5:00 pm – Jeremy runs home to start conference call
5:20 pm – We see doctor who confirms that Edda’s parts are OK which is what the ultrasound person told us an hour ago
5:30 pm – Vince comes home from neighbor
6:30 pm – Doris and Edda home from hospital

Today:

8:30 am – drop Vince off from school
9:00 am – go home and wait for Rukia, our housekeeper and friend
9:10 am – take Rukia and Edda to school because Rukia is going to take Edda herself tomorrow because Jeremy and I are going to Vince’s school to celebrate his birthday party
9:30 am – get to Edda’s school
9:40 am – 10:45 am – chat with Rukia at the Cheese Prata place across the street (it was very nice to have some time with a friend without the kids)
10:50 am – back at Edda’s school to find out that she’d been screaming the whole time so they took her outside to the playground
11:00 – hail cab on hot sidewalk
11:30 – pick up Vince – say bye to Rukia
lunch, nap
1:30 pm – send Vince to neighbor’s
1:35 pm – get cab to drive to therapy
2:00 pm – nice physical therapy session
3:00 pm – walk to taxi stand – grab a sandwich to eat while walking because Edda is screaming her head off
4:00 pm – come home, get Vince from neighbor
4:50 pm – Kate comes over for dinner
5:00 pm – make dinner for all of us
7:00 pm – Kate heads home

I am tired. Also, Edda is going ape-shit on her hand, the splint has been thwarted.

Ruby came home from her sleepover with a good report card. Elaine and Livvy are going to take care of Ruby for a month!

I’m a bit ashamed of myself today as I watched a petty theft in progress and did nothing to stop it. There is an lady who sells ice cream from a little cart near the MRT stop by our house. uring the day, it’s usually all wrapped up under a tarp and she usually unfurls the tarp and sets up her shop in the afternoon for the after school rush. Jeremy and I walked past the cart while it was under wraps and watched a little old lady steal the clips which were holding the tarp down. They are only worth a dollar or so for about 10 of them, but still. I guess I should have done something, but I just walked on by. Sigh.

I was hanging out at Vince’s school this morning – his preschool is on the 4th floor of an office building and after I drop Vince off, I have Edda walk around the corridor which is long and empty and she can toddle around without getting in anyone’s way. Today I was talking to Auntie (all ladies of a certain age are Aunties. I’m an Auntie too which makes me shudder a bit because I like to think of myself as still pre-Auntie. It’s kind of nice, you never have to remember anyone’s name. At Vince’s school, there is the snack Auntie and the potty Auntie and other Aunties who have duties I’m not aware of, perhaps shirt-tucking-in Auntie (I never tuck Vince’s shirt in, but he comes home neater than when he left)) and mentioning that Edda has some autistic tendencies and she was chatting about her neighbor who has a son who is autistic, (everybody I mention autism / mentally retarded to has a nephew, neighbor, son, friend, etc who is autistic or mentally retarded – interesting) and blah, blah, blah, we are chatting away…

Then I realize, I finally get a chance to see Vince in action at school! They usually keep the front door locked and Vince is in a classroom with that door shut – a double barrier between me and my son – but this morning I’m inside the air lock! I tiptoe over to the classroom and look through the glass window to see my little sweetheart. I imagine he’s sweetly singing and clapping to the “Good morning” song. As I look into the door, I see that he has physically grabbed another boy in his class and is hauling this poor boy to another spot in the circle and as he is doing this, he’s telling the teacher that he’s singing the words wrong. Hmmm… This was not in accordance with my fantasy. Next week is parent/teacher conference. I think we’ll hear about this a bit more.