Report card

Andy got a report card of sorts this week. It's an interesting preview of what's to come, that's for sure. The good news is he seems to be right with his peers in terms of language development, speech, interaction, socialization, math, motor skills, etc. He's even above average in his counting, being able to count solidly up to 41 was apparently impressive. Bjorn is thrilled about this part. It cracks me up to see his delight in his kids excelling at something, anything.

I was worried about the socialization part. He's new to this school, well, a few months now, and when I ask him about who he played with, he won't tell me much. But his teacher said he's got a core group of buddies -- Leonard mostly, followed by Elliot and sometimes Matthew. That was good to hear.

Things have been chaotic here otherwise. I was out of town for a week for work, which was both good and exhausting. I'm always glad when it's over as I don't have to do it again for a year, but I've been working toward this for at least six months so it's always nice to see the fruits of my labors.

Jennifer also moved in last weekend. Right now the house is still brimming with too much stuff so we're still sorting out what furniture to keep, what to put in the attic and what to get rid of all together. She's taking over the basement and it's been interesting to see all her stuff mixed with ours and trying to find the best way to give her privacy and space while keeping the TV and Wii station and access to the laundry room. Right now I am bumping into furniture in the wrong places still, but we're slowly getting it all situated. The bonus? She makes coffee every morning and occasionally folds laundry and does the dishes. I can get used to that.

Four year check up

Andy had his four year check up on Friday. What was notable was that at four, he moves up to the "preliminary room" for his check-ups where he was given a vision test, a depth perception test, a red/green color blind test and a hearing test. His vision wasn't perfect. Apparently kids this age don't normally see 20/20 anyway, but he had trouble with some of the pictures on the exam. Dr. Staats thought that could just be to not understanding the test, which happens all the time, but that I should keep an eye out to see if I see him squinting in the future and that we'll look at it again at his next check up. He also didn't do so great on high pitched sounds on his left ear. That is the ear where he had an ear infection just last week so that is likely the culprit. She also reported that his tube has fallen out of that ear and is just sitting in the ear canal. If it doesn't fall out between now and the visit to the ENT in a few weeks, she thinks they will reach in to scoop it out.

I didn't get the piece of paper with all the measurements like in other visits, but I can report that he was 39 1/2 inches tall (not quite 40, which would make him happy since he's four and naturally, his height should match). He also weighed in at 35 pounds. I know, 35 pounds. I was looking back at my posts around his first year and he weight 24 pounds at a year. It's hard to believe he's only gained 10 pounds in three years.

They also drew blood from his finger to check for cholesterol, which he doesn't have. He also peed in a cup and they checked for diabetes, which he also doesn't have. He also was a good sport and got the chicken pox booster vaccine. It's not required at age four, but it will be required for kindergarten and apparently at age five, there are three other boosters so it just made sense to knock one of those out now. The whole appointment took about 1 1/2 hours, and we were being seen for that whole time.

In other news, I got out to see some friends this weekend. Friday night the C-spot girls got together and during the day I got to see Armando. I even left him at the Kings Park West library checking out porn on public computers while I took Andy to his appointment. I even managed to get in a beginning yoga class with Lizzie G on Sunday. It was good. I think I could get into that.

Bob

My friend, Bob, is in the hospital. He was in a bad car accident last week driving from his home in Florida to visit Washington, D.C. The guy is 76 and has smoked for 200 years, has a seriously gruff cough and is far from thin so I'm surprised that it's something like a car that would give him a run for his money. I love the guy despite the fact that he's been giving me a hard time since I've known him. When I got married, he felt he wanted to talk to Bjorn in person to make sure "the Swede" understood what he was getting into. That said, he's also served as a reference for just about every just I have applied for and his recommendations have apparently been good enough as I always got the job. He's even given me some career advice, some of which was even worthwhile.

I found out about his accident when a friend of his sent a mass e-mail to many of the addresses in Bob's address book letting us know what had happened. The request also went out asking for folks to e-mail funny stories that a friend would then read to Bob to help cheer him up. The response has been pretty amazing with a very diverse group of folks sending around funny stories from him over the many years. The guy has lived a fantastic life as a print, television and wire reporter only to take up writing novels as a retirement hobby after his kids were grown. I can only hope to be so lucky in 40 years.