Doctors, Post Placement, Daycare and a Sad Day

We have been really busy since the holidays, hence the lack of posts. Although I hadn't been exactly cranking them out before the holidays either.

Nick has been sick, on and off, since January 2nd. It started with Pink Eye and a really bad cold. Right now he's got an ear infection but he seems to be doing much better since he went back on antibiotics. Somehow, I have been spared of the sickness but Bill has been almost as sick as Nick.

Earlier this week Nick had his 21 month checkup. Apparently this isn't a normal check but our pediatrician wanted to see him, plus we need to finish up the immunizations. Anyway, Nick really has a thing against the stethoscope. The minute it comes out he starts screaming bloody murder. I don't know why this upsets him so much, but it does and it makes checkups really fun (NOT). Other than the freakout with the stethoscope he did pretty well. He is now up to 24.5 pounds and is a little over 34 inches tall. This means that in 5 months he has gained almost 3 pounds and grown 2 1/4 inches. We had been noticing recently that his pants and pjs were starting to get a little short so this weekend we'll be stocking up on some longer/larger clothing.

This past Thursday we had Nick's first post placement visit. I have to say, we have the best Social Worker, whom I would highly recommend to anyone in the area. She is so nice and Nick took an immediate liking to her. I was a bit worried about how things were going to go with him during the visit because it was late in the day and Nick had what was probably his worst day ever at day care that day (more on that later).

I thought the post placement visit went really well. Our Social Worker seemed very happy with Nick's adjustment to his surroundings and attachment to us. She had some good advice for us to help with addressing some of the regular toddler behaviors and also offered to help us find resources if we need them in the future.

Our agency has given us two different dates for having the report to them, one of the dates is today, as communicated to us through email on Thursday (yes 2 days before it is supposedly due). The other date they gave us in a friendly reminder call on Wednesday is January 31st. This is also the date they communicated to us in writing back in August when we returned from Russia. I really had hoped they would get their act together but through this recent interaction I see that they haven't. It's a shame. We are hoping to get the report to them by the end of next week, which will be a week ahead of the date they gave us in writing. I think thats pretty good!

Back to the bad day at daycare. Normally, I drop off in the morning and Bill picks up at night. But on this day Bill was home sick, so I did both. When I went to pick up I noticed a bunch of sheets behind Nick's daily report but didn't think anything of it and just grabbed his daily report, artwork, and coat, and went into the other room to get him. His daily report noted that he had an OK day (this translates to bad) and had to have several reminders to use his gentle touches with his friends. So, I go in the room to get him and the discussion goes like this:

Me: "Nick, it sounds like you had a rough day buddy."
Teacher: "Well, the first bite was because his friend took his book away."
Me (totally flustered and thankful no other parents are in the room): "The FIRST bite, how many biting incidents were there?"
Teacher gingerly: "Three."
Me horrified: "Three, where are the incident reports?"
Teacher: "On the clipboard, we turn them over so no other parents can see them. We'll need you to sign them before you leave today."
Me: "Of course, I didn't realize, I'm going to get them now."

Oh my god! Three biting incidents in one day! Two of them were not even provoked. Not that it would be any better if they were provoked, its just at least then it would be slightly more explainable. But apparently, during morning snack Nick just leaned over and bit his friends back. Who does that? I was beside myself and so upset. The teacher said they were all really surprised because the little one whom Nick decided to bite not once but twice, is his buddy! So glad that we had to rush home for our post placement visit. Needless to say, getting a report like this was very stressful and upsetting. Not to mention that if I were the parent of a child who had been bitten I would be really upset too. I asked about the kids who had been bitten and the teacher thought the bite marks were all mainly gone by the end of the day. I hope so.

On Friday, I was so worried that Nick would start up the biting frenzy again. When I dropped him off the teacher said that they would keep a close eye on him. And I guess they did because they told Bill that he had made some (not sure how many) attempts to bite again Friday but did not succeed because they got to him before he was able to bite. They do some sort of discipline for trying to bite, not sure what exactly, we'll have to find out. Anyway, I really hope he will stop this behavior now, because I don't want anyone else to get hurt.

Finally, something else happened yesterday that makes me very sad. I don't think I ever mentioned it, but prior to this November I worked for Circuit City at their corporate headquarters. I was planning on returning to work at CC after my adoption leave in mid-November but thankfully found a new job and gave my notice 3 days prior to a massive layoff of 800 people at the Corporate Headquarters, including the team I had managed. This was very upsetting, to have so many friends lose their jobs right before the holidays. But some friends remained employed there and hopefully they would be able to turn it around. Shortly thereafter the company declared bankruptcy and filed for Chapter 11. I had high hopes for the company to fight its way back. Circuit is an institution here in Richmond and I really wanted them to succeed, for the 34000 employees, their customers and the Richmond community.

Unfortunately, yesterday, after failing to attract a buyer able to get financing to buy the company, Circuit City announced that it will have to liquidate its inventory and close all stores.

Say what you will about Circuit City, everyone has a story. I know there were issues, colossal missteps, etc. But, I can honestly say that the people I worked with there were some of the smartest, hardworking, fun and amazing people I have ever had the pleasure to spend my days with. I developed some wonderful friendships that I'm sure will last a lifetime. Not all companies are like that, fostering real teamwork and comraderie amongst their workforce, while still getting the work done.

It is a sad, sad day for the Richmond community and for many communities across the nation that had stores where 34000 people in total were employed.

With that said, I'm going to say bye for now.

Have a great weekend all!