flea

The System, that is. I spent most of an hour waiting to see a social worker this morning about a child care subsidy, and on being told it was going to be another hour anyway, and that mr. flea was missing a piece of paper anyway, we left. We were almost certainly going to be denied, anyway - I think my recent raise put us over the definition of low income (under $35K a year). I'll just hope that work doesn't ask for any further proof of the status of our application. In the interim, I got to see a FANTASTIC receptionist who managed throngs of people, multiple phone calls, and assorted nonsense; a woman strike her two year old with a belt right there in the waiting room of a child services agency; and lots of people waiting and waiting and waiting. Probably most of them were poorer than us by a fair amount, and probably some of them were missing work to be there waiting for the appointments. It was both rage-inducing (largely rage at myself for even bothering to follow the rules and make an appointment and go and have all of our time wasted) and pretty depressing.

Then it was off to Casper's school (Casper still in tow - she had no school today) for teacher conference. Mrs. B is a little reticent and shy and mr. flea compensates by being extra-friendly and talkative, so I didn't feel like a learned as much as I wanted to. I was surprised to hear that one of Casper's big issues is dawdling. Okay, not surprised, because she's totally a dawdler at home too, but a little surprised because I was thinking of her as a mini-flea, when it seems clear that at school at least she's a mini-mr. flea (Mrs. B even said so!). She's goofy and silly and a bit on the beat of her own drum. Mrs. B marvelled at her fine motor control; while we were talking, Casper spontaneously started working on a project using a giant thumbtack to punch out the shape of South America. This works on the pincer grip (for writing, later) and Mrs. B said Casper was really good at it and many kindergardeners had trouble. I asked about her social activity and Mrs. B said she had people she was especially close to and she was trying to encourage broader friendships. She said that Casper's close relationship with Logan is indeed reciprocal (Casper spent hours this weekend making an art project for Logan) even though Logan is a boy and older. She seems to be fine; I think in some ways she seems a bit young, but then she IS a bit young for all this formal schooling. She's certainly doing fine in terms of academic work, and is clearly learning stuff but I don't think is feeling pressured at all.

It was a weekend of some difficulty. The Dillo is still sleeping badly, although we moved the computer into the breakfast nook and set up the crib in his room and he is sleeping in the crib no worse than he was in the pack n play. Casper was fairly demanding; we are going to work hard at cutting back treats to the bare minimum as I think they are becoming a problem, both the sugar levels and the desire for a treat meaning lots of whining. mr. flea moped about the job sitch a bit but hauled himself out of the abyss I think, and is having a conference call this afternoon to talk about the post-doc. Just tired, and hard work cleaning/decluttering the house, and feeling bleah.