penguins and other random things
So, I decided to scrap the print idea. Turns out, I'm not so motivated to do it, and also, the little market where I was going to try this project is absolutely AWFUL at promotion. So... there will be many people in town, and none of them will know that this lovely little market exists.
Now, as an aside, I found the complete series of that silly penguin, and I had somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 exposures. So the repetitive stuff I had on the website was not even close to representative. Not that it matters, but I wonder what I was thinking in what I chose to put there? I have no idea.
Also, we toured the integrative preschool that I'd like Noel to go to, and it's awesome. I really liked it, Noel liked the younger kid room (where he'd be) and didn't like the bigger kid room (loud! running! chaos!). I think it will be a great fit, and have to wait 3-5 weeks until they get done with their placements for next year to see if we make the cut. I'm excited- now. Talk to me in the fall and we can discuss my panic at sending my wee little boy to SCHOOL. With a BACKPACK. (two days a week, four hours a day, completely within my comfort level, with therapies on-site)
And finally, I filed our taxes last night. I love my two little deductions.
Appealing to the interwebs, again.
So, I'm thinking about doing a print series, something that would be more in line with an art print, rather than what I actually do regularly, which is portraiture. Everyone that I show this series to seems to enjoy it, everyone says, oh, that's great. This one is my favorite. Blah, blah, blah.
I've had this set of shots for a long time, though, and have been looking at them long enough that I am not objective at all about them. I tried to pester my facebook people to at least look at them (and some did, I know) but I haven't gotten any response as of yet, which means either A) the idea sucks, the penguin is a bust, and nobody in their right mind would buy a black and white print of a penguin (and nobody wants to be the one to say it) or B) all my friends are busy and/or lazy.
I really do want to hear opinions on them. Even if the answer is, "No, I can't imagine anyone would buy that as an impulse purchase 5x7 matted print". My idea is to throw some local print art into a small Saturday morning market locally (and, as an added bonus, increase my 'real' portrait thing visibility).
Thanks, internets. Here's a quickie thing I pulled together for viewing some time ago, so it's not great, but it's there.
Penguin gallery.
Quick! Stab me in the eye!
An eye stabbing would be preferable to the amount of hassle this transition this seems to be working into. Seriously.
First of all, our speech therapist and I have been calling the EI coordinator for months now- easily for 8 weeks. No response. None. Nothing. Not even the faxed correction of a typo that ended our therapy benefits two weeks before the end of the year... but our PT was out on vacation, and it was the holidays, so I didn't hate having two weeks off. It shouldn't have happened, absolutely not. I didn't bitch because like I said, I didn't mind having the free time. It still shouldn't have happened.
Noel will be three in ten weeks. We're supposed to have started the transition paperwork or review or something- four months ago. But, of course, we couldn't get a phone call returned, let alone an appointment for whatever we need to do.
I got a call from our SLP this afternoon- she FINALLY got a live voice at the end of the phone call (I was about fifteen minutes from calling the higher ups and really tearing into them). The coordinator apparently didn't realize we were outside of our IFSP, didn't realize that we were aging out of the program, and I'm assuming there was no mention of all the unreturned phone calls. Magically, we're scheduled for an appointment with the next set of bureaucracy in less than two weeks.
Thrilled. I just want to get this over with. Now, I understand that the IEP is a bigger deal than the IFSP that we've had so far. I've been very relaxed about the goals for those- pretty much followed our therapists lead because I trust them and also because it's been pretty obvious what comes next- steps, walking, words, sounds, signs. Pointing to 5 body parts. Taking 5 independent steps.
Is there a Cliff's notes on "Your child's first IEP"? What do I need to know, in bulletpoints?
So... that thing I said...
Yesterday when I was all, school, ick, no full day, blah blah blah. Remember that?
Right. So I finally checked, and the integrated church preschool DOES have a T/TH program for Noel. I'm filling out the waiting list form today and we'll be going on the tour when they do another one (they do that monthly).
Let's pretend like I didn't do all that bellyaching, because we're all better now. As better as we're going to get now, months and months before it actually happens.
And even though it's a church school, which I'm not totally crazy about, who doesn't need to learn to love their neighbor? It's alright. I grew up in church, and I'm reasonably ok, right? Ha. Maybe we need to rethink this.
No, really. The program is fantastic. It really, really is. The woman who founded the program has a daughter with Down syndrome. The school was founded at least 20, maybe 25 years ago. Been around, been doing the integration thing since before it was the thing to do. I'm confident that it's solid. They have a therapy team that comes to them.
It'll be perfect, as long as we don't get the boot for having an immunization exemption for the sprouts. Because it's a private school, they really don't HAVE to let us in if they don't want to, and a non-vaxxed kid might raise eyebrows. Or not. You never can tell about stuff like that. So. I'm taking in our waiting list form and check. We're getting the ball rolling, with or without our official transition from EI.
And we got a letter from our mortgage company that our mortgage payments were going up as of February's payment (nope, it's a 30 year fixed- it's just an escrow discrepancy) and this morning I got an email from AMEX that I'm getting a credit limit decrease (after I took some of my shiny new business profit and paid down the balance a bit) and the husband took a little bit of a pay cut last year. So the money situation, it isn't looking all that good. It's not all that bad, either, but it's certainly starting to pinch.
But I'm a brand new member of the Professional Photographers Association and got a whole bunch of new ideas on how to market to my upscale mommies. I only hope they still have money, because I need to get a couple of gigs, right?
As soon as my camera gets back from the factory. Again. It better work right when it comes home.
transition
So,
Tricia said something about starting school and all that. Out of EI, into school and big kid territory.
Let me preface this with a few things:
a) we have a really bad EI coordinator.
b) our insurance covers limited therapy for Noel.
c) I'm absolutely not going to send my 3 year old into the public school system (five days a week, from 7-2) just for services.
I wish we had a decent coordinator taking care of the transition, because that should already be started- Noel will be three in 10 weeks. She's gone AWOL, though, and repeated calls from both me and our therapists have gone un-returned. I know that Noel is eligible for speech through the school system, even if we don't place him in a class. What I have to do to make that happen, I don't know.
I know there is an integrated preschool here- one of our playgroup friends goes there. It's a church school, and I'm not super into the church school thing, but it's an option. 50/50 typical to special needs (what are we saying these days to be PC?). They let out at noon, which isn't 2, but it's still a long day for a little boy. I don't believe they have a shorter week available- because ideally, I'd like to start with a 2 day a week program. So there's that.
I'm leaning towards keeping him home with me and Darrah, though. Is that crazy?
We would just keep doing what we're doing now, which is going to the aquarium and signing fish and talking about vegetables at the grocery store and singing songs and counting the dog's legs and finding our bellies.
At three, is there really a lot more? Do we have to have a structured day?
My gut is telling me "no".
