You Pissed Her Off

Today has been a day filled with errands, doctor appointments and driving. It has, to say the least, worn me out. But, porr little C had to endure each moment with my mom and I. I must say, she did marvelously. Nana even bought her a little doctor's kit so she could have something new to play with to help occupy her time. The look on her face was fantastic, to say the least. She LOVED it. She even showed my OB doctor, who showed more interest than during any of the previous 5-1/2 months of visits. The two of them carried on a conversation about the medical profession (neither one understanding the other's words, but each of them non-the-less thoroughly engaged in the conversation).

After my NST (Non Stress Test) at the Family Birthing Center this morning, we went to lunch and then were off on a 2 hour jaunt to C's Audiology appointment for a 2 hour appointment. It turned out to be a fabulous appointment because Mom and I learned a lot from the audiologist. In fact, one of the things I learned today was that C's cochlear implant only has 8 out 16 electrodes opperational. So, we're going to go back in about 7 weeks to have the Advanced Bionics representative there. This person will bring a much more sophisticated piece of equipment to test the device. Plus, we're going to attempt to get a copy of C's latest CT scan, which we will mail down to the clinic. Between these two things we should find out why the other 8 electrodes are not working properly. One solution (though it is a drastic solution and will be done only if necessary and if all other options don't work) is to reimplant C.

Though I initially said absolutely not to this plan when it was initially brought to our attention several months ago, my opinion has changed due to C's recent diagnosis of Usher Syndrome. We now need to do something to help her have some form of communication with others. Had she been just deaf, then we would not have moved forward with reimplantation nor would we be as concerned about having only 8 electrodes firing in her cochlea. But being deaf and blind, we believe that C deserves some options in her life. Anyway, that means that we have a long road ahead of us to get C up to par with her implant and this clinic really seems like a good one to help us.

We finally arrived home around 4:30 this afternoon. It had been a long day. M seemed to have had a good day, though. He got out of school around noon and Papa picked him up. Papa had loads of work to do, so M got to play inside and watch tons of TV, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Sadly, though, his fun ended upon my arrival home. I made him turn the TV off and go outside to play, which he took surprisingly well. Nearly an hour after we were outside visiting with my parents, C decided to not follow directions. I did my usual practice of counting to three before taking the correction to the next step. She still didn't follow directions, so she got into even more trouble, after which she plopped herself on the ground and began to cry. Did I mention how dramatic my daughter is? No? Well, let me tell you... DRAMA QUEEN is a complete UNDERSTATEMENT!!! She will cry for nothing (literally) and will cry for 30, 40 or even 60 minutes without stopping. Her goal? To get someone (anyone) to feel sorry for her and to make the punisher feel terrible. Well, let me tell you... It doesn't work with me. It, in fact, irritates me to no end. I can handle her tears for about 10 or 15 minutes, after which I tell her to stop or go to bed. Today was no different. She chose not to stop crying after two warnings and was sent to bed. This made her so mad that she stomped off with a glare in my direction (again, nothing new).

Papa said, "Manette, you pissed her off, AGAIN!" Tell me about it!!!

M, my little copier-catter (his term, not mine), glared at me as he stood up for his sister by saying, "Yeah, Mom. You pissed her off, Meany!!!"

OH MY GOSH!!! My parents both burst into gales of laughter which made me laugh to no end. Do you know how hard it is to correct a child while you, and those around you, are laughing? Well, I can attest to the difficulty of the situation. I was laughing so hard that I couldn't correct him properly. And when I was finally able to get it out that what he said was a bad word, he didn't take me seriously because, "It not a bad word, Mom, cuz you were laughing." Needless to say, I was able to finally tell him that he wasn't allowed to repeat anything that came out of Pop's mouth (while still fighting to control my laughter, of course). Thankfully, Papa and Nana were able to control themselves enough to back me up opn that statement.

Bill Cosby was correct... Kids do say the darnedest things!!!