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Date Range: 8/1/2005 - 8/31/2005
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Monday, August 29, 2005
9:12 PM

Happy FireFox Day

Today Dan and I celebrated our love of FireFox. We are now the proud owners of the two available FireFox t-shirts (navy and black), though you'll probably never catch us both wearing the same one at the same time (*or the same style for that matter).

I also got Dan and Gaetano matching FireFox baseball hats. For our office wall, I bought us a limited edition poster of the Firefox two page advertisement that appeared in The New York Times on December 16th, 2004. On its way still are some FireFox stickers and the navy polo shirt for Dan.

If you love FireFox like we do, please help spread the love and buy something to help support your favorite browser.

*Note: I made a funny. If you didn't get it, go back and read it again until you laugh, even if it is just for courtesy's sake!

Posted by ~Angela | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Permalink

 
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
10:37 PM

Getting ready for Kindergarten - Levels 1 and 2

It's almost time for Gaetano to start Kindergarten and we've been getting ready for it. He's really excited about it too, which is great. (This is going to be a really long post, but hang in there if you can because there's some cute momoments. I'm a sucker for cute moments though...)

We already went school shopping for all the basic Kindergarten supplies so he'll be ready. When I was a kid, we didn't have fancy purple glue sticks that dry clear, washable markers, washable crayons, or erasable color pencils. So not fair... I'm looking forward to the fun projects I'll be helping him with at home.

One thing he wasn't excited about was getting his immunizations last Thursday and I can't say I blame him! Explaining to him that he has to do it to be in Kindergarten and that all the kids have to do it helped a little bit. Of course that didn't stop the wailing tears when he got the injections.

He received one shot in his left arm and two in his left thigh. Gaetano insisted he only got two shots total instead of three until the next morning when he took off his band-aid and saw there were two red spots. That's when he proclaimed, "I did get three!" He was too busy screaming over the second injection to even notice the third one!

Later that day, he pointed out his injections on his thigh to his daycare teacher and then turned to me to ask where his other one was because he'd forgotten. I guess it couldn't have hurt that bad or he would have remembered that it was his left arm.

Given my medical history and a couple potential symptoms, the doctor ordered some blood tests for Gaetano too. He's probably fine, but given my bad health history I'd rather be safe than sorry. I'm thankful to have a doctor who doesn't shrug things off and is willing to check just in case.

So I waited until Monday to do that since I was due to get my blood drawn too then and we both had to be fasting for the test. Early Monday morning we headed to the lab which is on the first floor just below the doctor's office.

They drew six vials from me first while Gaetano watched. I was calm and chatty, no big deal. He was pretty nervous but he did much better than last Thursday. So well that he only started to tear up a little before he got distracted by the technician who asked him to count to twenty which stopped him from crying.

Afterwards, he claimed it didn't hurt and he was only scared a little bit. He was mostly just disappointed because when he asked if we could take the blood home with us the answer was no.

Last on the pre-K to-do list was the TB test; back to the second floor for another needle, what fun. As we got out of the car Gaetano asked if we were going to go on the elevator to level two. I told him yes and he complained that he didn't want to go because level two hurt but level one didn't. I told him this time level two wouldn't hurt and not to worry about it as we approached the doctor's office.

Dan and I really expected that he'd do well given how well he did with getting his blood drawn. We couldn't have been more mistaken! Gaetano started crying and wailing as soon as he saw the same nurse from the last immunizations and the needle in her hands. He was telling us that he wanted to do the TB test on level one because level one doesn't hurt but level two does.

I thought maybe a different nurse might be able to make him feel better and the nurse agreed. She felt so bad seeing him cry and I felt bad that she felt bad. Talk about a vicious cycle!

So another nurse came in and she was really good with him. She had him write TB and his name, clean the vial containing the TB and his arm with an alcohol swab.

As soon as she opened the needle package his eyes were leaking profusely and he kept repeating all the same things he did before about levels one and two. So much for my theory; the new nurse made no difference!

I hated to do it, but I held his arms while Dan held his feet and the nurse gave him the injection. It was the tiniest little prick, just barely under the skin on his forearm. There's no way that it would hurt badly, and no matter how much anyone told him so he didn't want to believe it.

When the nurse was done, he saw stopped crying for just a second until he saw the bubble on his arm. (It looked like a blister.) The site of the bubble must have scared him because he started to cry harder again, but stopped after less than a minute. What a trauma!

Afterwards, it was the same story as after getting his blood drawn. In the car on the way to dinner, Gaetano told us that it didn't hurt, that he was only scared. So I told him next time he needs to trust us and not be scared. I'm hopeful that he'll be much better next time, just like he was the second time he got his blood drawn. (The first time was quite scary and is a rather funny story that I'll save for another day.)

Last thing to get done is the paperwork that needs to be filled out. I noticed earlier that there's a blood lead test that's required for all children over the age of 4 years 3 months. Uh oh...He already had blood drawn Monday and that wasn't part of the testing.

The nurse called the lab to see if they could use the blood from Monday at my suggestion. Even though Gaetano did well with that, I didn't want to put him through it again if I didn't have to. Unfortunately the nurse couldn't get an answer for us right away so I had to wait for a call back.

After we got home from dinner there was a very happy sounding message from the nurse stating that the lab had enough blood left to do the lead test. Hooray! Gaetano doesn't have to get poked again.

Friday the TB results are read and we'll get all the blood test results from Monday and hopefully the lead test too. What an ordeal for all of us!

Posted by ~Angela | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Permalink

 
Saturday, August 20, 2005
11:32 AM

Gaetano's Trunk Story

Gaetano loves to tell people all about the things he's done. He's a talker; yes I know, he's like his mama. His latest favorite thing to tell people is his trunk story.

Last week he took an entrance exam for Kindergarten. When he was done, he wanted to tell the teacher something. As soon as he started telling her what he wanted to say, I knew what it was and couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Gaetano told the teacher that Dan put him in the trunk. Her facial expression was what you'd expect it to be when she first heard Gaetano tell her that we'd put him in the trunk.

Now before you go freaking out, it is important to know that he was not traumatized in any way; he went into the trunk willingly, was not scared, and likes telling people the story.

The problem is, sometimes he forgets to say why he was put in the trunk, which is the most important part. Once we told the teacher why, it was no big deal.

Dan bought a new Jetta a little over a month ago, which has a glow-in-the-dark safety release handle inside. I wanted Gaetano to know how to get out of the trunk if any bad guys ever tried to put him inside.

Before putting him in the trunk, Dan put the back seat down so that Gaetano could get out that way if he wanted. I explained to him that he could go out through he back seat if he gets scared, showed him where the handle was, and put him inside. He pushed on the handle a few seconds after we closed the trunk and the trunk popped right open. (The Jetta is great; the trunk opens all the way by itself.)

Gaetano was proud of himself and not scared whatsoever. He told my parents about the trunk the next time we visited and we showed them how he knows how to get out, this time without the back seat down. He wasn't scared at all. I'm so proud of him.

He knows that sometimes bad guys take kids and put them in the trunk, so he knows that he shouldn't be scared because most new cars have a handle. He also knows that if there isn't a handle he needs to make a lot of noise if the car isn't moving.

I feel better knowing that he knows what he should do and I'm glad to see that car manufacturers are taking steps to make trunks safer. Such is the world we live in that these things are important. If you have a young child and a car with a trunk escape mechanism, please be sure to teach your child how to use it.

Posted by ~Angela | Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink