more fat julius and the fatcheeked brothers and the fat bailout

Darling fat sweet Julius went for his four month checkup today and got his shots, and cried poor thing. He is however, quite lovely and huge, 18 pounds, and 27 inches. 90-95% percentile or something. His head is still 50th percentile but when I asked the doctor about it she was unconcerned. Apparently his head is still growing and his body will grow into it and be in proportion later, like when he's a toddler.

More of a problem? His head is flat on one side, seriously flat. We've been referred to the helmet clinic at Sick Kids. Our Ped doesn't think he will need a helmet, but he's borderline so we're going to get them to measure. Fuck, fuck fuck fuck I hate this.

Onwards and upwards, am working on the wishlist for the architect, and madly trying to get the kids back and forth to the testing and get the homework they missed done. And fill out our forms---very hard to do. Sigh....

For each kid, we have a background questionnaire from the psychologist with medical, social and family history, plus, the BASC-2 for parents and teachers, and the Connors rating scales for parents and teachers. Kaz also filled out one of his own for adolescents. The teachers have filled them out, and now I have to do the parent ones. (For some reason, I'm the only parent doing this---we've talked about it, as you can see from the post below, but really gotten nowhere, so I'm doing it all.)

At the testing centre, they both did the WISC for IQ testing in children, as well as various psychomotor tests to determine fine motor skills, gross motor skills, attention, comprehension, etc.. When we get the results, I'll let you know exactly which ones to give you a better idea of what would happen if you took your child in.

One idea we are looking into is the Cogmed working memory training system. I don't know much about it yet, but the basic idea is that if you do these brain training exercises it helps with working memory (like how you keep phone numbers in your brain until you can write them down, or a list of things you need to get in another room.) It's supposed to complement ADD drugs as opposed to replacing them, but what the hell, I don't have enough to do so why not add this to the mix....

And now, a little note from our sponsor, Mr.Cotta. (Since he provides the fridge full of food I snack on, he's the blog sponsor, okay?)

He is a finance guy and knows exactly what is happening in the markets these days, and although I have a business degree, I'm not quite the guru he is, so I promised to pass this on and ask you all to call your #$%^#%^ senators and #$%^#$ congressional reps and PASS the #$%^# bailout package before the entire world banking structure falls apart.

I know that you guys no longer believe Bush or Paulsen, or anyone else leading your country since they tend to cry Chicken Little every twenty seconds, so could you all just believe my husband that this is a big frickin deal, and the sky really is falling and they really do need that much money to fix this mess? Unlike every other time he said so, Bush isn't kidding this time. He actually has it right, for once in his life. Amazing isn't it? Even a stopped clock is right twice a day, tootles. And it's got everything to do with you on Main Street, because if those banks go under---dude they loan the main street banks and VISA and your pension funds their money, and those guys directly affect you. If these big guys go under then you won't be able to renew your normal home mortgage, or get working capital for your small business, or do anything.at.all.

We'll all be sitting around all day, even the prudent ones.

For a nice plain language explanation of why they need the money, go see Bitch PhD. She interviewed a banker and got this out of him. My banker interview, Mr.C., just foamed at the mouth so all I have are swear words....sorry.

Now go call.