I'm a 29 year old chick living in the South. I'm married to Kim - happily married most of the time. Our daughter is 8-year-old Bailyn. I work in the I.S. Department of a nearby hospital. Oh, and I'm a pagan living in the Bible Belt.
I love reading, cuddling with Kim and Bailyn, working with computers, playing The Sims 2, and waiting anxiously for the release of Sims 3.
2006-12-17 - 7:15 p.m. What's a Whore?
Bailyn and I watched a charming (read: mind-numbingly dull) teen flick today, starring the charismatic Lindsay Lohan. In Mean Girls, Lohan plays a 16-year-old girl who grew up being home-schooled in Africa. Her family moves back to the States, and she has to learn to navigate a different type of jungle called High School. OK, enough of the a review. My point to this is that my child looked at me halfway through the movie and asked, "What's a whore?" I thought I covered my shock quite nicely and answered, "It's a mean word for a girl who dates too many boys." Note to self: Child is picking up on WAY more now than she used to, so PG-13 now means PG-13.
In other news, I am now 2 1/2 weeks away from surgery. I am in total countdown mode. I installed my handheld massaging showerhead yesterday (will make showering easier and the massage function is useful for subtle scar formation). I have several different types of front-close sports bras, a few pairs of button-up jammies, and I have ordered several cute shirts (the kind that have areas where your boobs are supposed to be, that I've never even considered buying before) to wear when I head back to work. Next weekend is all Christmas and the final weekend will be spent moving things from the cabinets to the counter and cooking a few meals I can freeze to make things easier on Kim. I'll also get all the laundry done over the weekend (as usual), and then I'll hit it again on that Wednesday night (since I won't be sleeping anyway).
On the Bailyn front, we are still having the same problems in school, and everyone is completely stumped as to what to do to discipline her. All the common things (time out, spanking, taking things away, etc, etc) fail miserably with her. She just has this "I don't care" attitude, and even when I KNOW the punishment has gotten under her skin, she has this nonchalant "you can't beat me" demeanor. I must admit that on one hand, I'm banging my head on the wall about what I'm going to do with this kid and on the other, I'm so incredibly proud that she is such a strong person. On a positive note, her reading has taken a significant jump forward. At any rate, we have decided that it is time to consult a shrink. Kim and I met with the psychiatrist last week to fill her in on the problems we're having. Bailyn's first appt is Tuesday, and then we'll have to skip the week after (holidays). Bailyn will start having weekly appts the first week in January. We discussed the possibily of ADHD and told her about the results of the Conners' test the school gave us and the teacher to complete. (Incidentally, the one we completed rated her as severe as possible in hyperactivity/impulsivity and quite high in inattentativeness. The teacher rated her quite high in hyperactivity and boderline in inattentiveness.) The shrink said that based on what we're telling her, it very well could be ADHD, and if that is the case, there are several things she wants to teach us to try to help Bailyn learn to cope with her symptoms. She said that there are quite a few things parents and teachers can do to work with the child's strengths to avoid exacerbating the weaknesses. Sometimes, it may be necessary to turn to medication, but she would prefer to keep the dosage low and focus on playing the kid's strengths. Kim and I were thrilled to hear this. While we understand that Bailyn has difficulty in a classroom setting where she is expected to sit still and work at her desk, we do not want to medicate all her special qualities into oblivion. Dr. Cox was also of the opinion that it could be something other that ADHD, and she will hold off on attempting a diagnosis until she and Bailyn have 3-4 weeks of meetings. I'll keep you updated!
