We did a little shopping today. I took Timothy and Jocelyn to TJMaxx to spend a gift card we got at Christmas on new pants for Timothy. Of course, we only bought 2 pairs of pants and still managed to spend the entire card and more on all the other stuff we got - including a pink frilly dress appropriate for the fanciest of weddings that Jocelyn just had to have. But anyway, apparently we have reached the end of the boy's dept and so we shopping in the men's dept! A 29x30 fits well enough to stay up and only be cuffed a little (but will fit by the fall I'm sure!). And men's small for shirts seems to work just fine. He went into the dressing room, by himself, to try them on. He took roughly FOREVER (long enough that Jocelyn had to pee so we were able to walk clear across the store to the bathroom and back again and he still wasn't done). I found out afterwards he was having trouble putting them back on the hanger. But anyway, we got 2 pairs of pants (one jeans, one khakis), 4 short sleeve Ts, 2 long sleeve Ts, 2 button downs, 1 sweatshirt, 1 pair of baseball gloves (his favorite purchase of the day), one pair of jeans for Jesse, 1 fancy dress, 2 pant/top sets that looks like dresses, and one skirt. After the gift card, $25. Not bad!
Busy week in the Morgan dept. We got most of his reviews last week. Generally depressing. Basically, he's a nice compliant kid who functions below the first percentile in every standardized test they give him. He makes progress on anything they concentrate on intensely and on nothing else. There was some encouraging stuff about responding to peers and such (and his reading and math are at a second grade level), but what struck me the most was "He cooperates for extended periods of time but still requires intermittent token reinforcement to remain engaged with the task. He can wait appropriately for a brief period of time before reinforcement is provided however has not demonstrated approval of task completion nor does the task completion serve as reinforcement". In other words, he doesn't care about his work, and finds no pride in it.
Monday night his OT called to review her part and talk about goals for next year. Most of them sounded good - brushing teeth, brushing hair, buttoning pants. Folding laundry seemed not completely necessary but I figured whatever, no harm. All I said was it didn't have to look like the gap. I was excited about teaching him to put his shoes on. And then:
her: "and we were going to do some cooking lessons with the microwave."
me: "umm, huh?"
her: "you know, microwave popcorn or some simple recipes"
me: "well, fun as that sounds, do you feel confident you can teach him that metal can't go in the microwave?"
her: "oh, hmmm"
me: "or even that you can't run it empty or put your hamster in it?"
her: "ok, I see your point"
me: "yeah, I just prefer not to give him weapons whenever possible"
She canned that item off the list and we finished up our conversation. I told Josh she wanted to teach him to use the microwave. Josh says, "Oh great, maybe next they can teach him to use a gun". hahaha
Tuesday his IQ tests were sent home. Three different non-verbal assessments = 71, 74, and 79. Ouch. But then Tuesday night his teacher called. I had meetings all day and didn't get home from work until nearly 8 and was worried I'd miss her call but luckily she called just after I got my clothes changed. We chatted until almost 10. I asked about the IQ test and she said most of their kids can't complete the test and then they don't get a score at all, so it was great that he could do it. We talked about the microwave and she laughed. I asked about holding him back a year but she said he has some super friends and all the kids are really nice to him and she'd hate for him to lose that. She told a bunch of funny stories - like when she was sitting with 2 teachers having a meeting and offered them a cookie and then got up to get something and when she got back, Morgan was in her chair giving her the "I'd like a cookie" face. She says the other kids in her class are all really responsive to him, and that if he wants, he'll have the whole class dancing around, including the teachers, just because he tells them to. She says when they first made him a picture schedule they didn't explain he had to wait for an adult, so they were chasing him around all day as he went on about completely his schedule without them. That's when they taught him to say "hey come on, hurry up". She said he was hitting and swatting them until they taught him to tap, and now he doesn't. Stories like that, it was fun to chat with her.
Then Friday was the actual meeting. Went quickly and not super entertaining (except that the SLP clearly has OCD and was quite disrupted by the fact that her goals didn't print in the order she typed them in) but one funny spot. There was some young SLP that is not Morgan's SLP but rather was just there because she had assessed him and made recommendations for his goals for next year. She looked about 16 years old. I was explaining that if I ask him to get his pants, he can only do it if we're in the same room as his pants - like if we're in the kitchen and the pants are on the table and I say "Morgan, get your pants", he does. But if he has to go to his room, he never comes back. She then countered with "yes, if there was a pile of clothes on the table, he should even be able to pick out what is pants." So I looked at her very deadpan and said, "was that a crack at my housekeeping?" Everyone else knew me and started laughing, but I think she peed a little.
Friday afternoon I had our monthly meeting with all the big wigs. This month the CEO attended in person, which means pretty much every other senior person attended (in person attendance about 40, video linked to 30 more, then another 30-40 on the phone). My boss runs the meeting and this month I presented what I thought was some very fascinating analysis. As I was presenting it, I could tell from the looks on everyones faces that they a) also found it interesting, b) were understanding what I was saying, and c) that they felt pity for me being such a nerd as to find this as interesting as I was finding it. So I paused after one point and said "why is everyone looking at me like I'm the biggest geek in the world?" Got a good ol' laugh from everyone, even a giggle from the CEO who isn't exactly a ham-it-up kind of guy, but the funniest part was the CFO (Joe Z). He just couldn't keep his composure and had to keep his hand over his mouth for the rest of my presentation because he had a case of the giggles. However, I ran a bit over on my time (not my fault - the person before me went long) and clearly the CFO had somewhere else to be but he sat there for the rest of my time and thanked me before he left. Then the CEO's chief of staff asked me to send her the analysis whenever I update it (which happens to be monthly) as she wants to make sure he sees it regularly. So not bad for a Friday afternoon. Even my old boss both wrote me a note as to it being a great presentation, and also found me personally to tell me such, which is not like him at all. I'm converting it to a more elementary version with no insider numbers in it and presenting it at a Finance Learning Series session on the 23rd (invited audience of several hundred) and then also presenting it at the Hartford Actuaries' Club meeting in June (likely audience 30-50).
I guess that's enough babbling for one night. Jocelyn's still enjoying school and dresses, Jesse calls everyone a butthead, and Josh is sick of no school for teacher days. We're off to Philly on Wednesday for Passover. I'm looking forward to a few days off!
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