Work: Thursday morning I was at the office before
8am for a staff call with the UK, German, Chinese and US team leads. I had scheduled calls with our legal counsel and our PR Director, finished a creative brief for our upcoming Remembrance Day promotion, re-forecasted the H2 budget, provided feedback on the second round of TV ad concepts, submitted tickets to update several product features on my website, created a statistical model to analyze our Free Trial landing page test and a few other things at the office.
Bloorview/Spina Bifida Group: I pulled into our driveway at home at
1pm and hopped directly into Jeff's truck, where the kids were waiting and buckled. We all drove to the Bloorview Rehabilitation Centre for Gavin's Spina Bifida Baby Group. I ate some crackers and tuna on the way that Jeff brought for me. He checked Gavin in while I dropped Autumn at the Ronald McDonald Playroom so she could play during his appointment . . . begged and pleaded for her to remove herself from my leg and then had to have the woman in charge rip her off so I could run upstairs to meet with Jeff and Gavin.
We met with his physiotherapist, nurse practitioner, speech therapist and set up an appointment with his occupational therapist (who was sick) to help us find the right material to sew in some pants to protect his poor protruding tailbone from continuing to rub sores on his bum. Then we went to a class on Learning and Development at
2:15pm with one of the psychologists specializing in Spina Bifida . . . where we proceeded to try to sit patiently while the one other parent in the room (who Jeff calls the psycho mom) dominated the entire conversation wondering why her 2-yr-old was acting like a 2-yr-old. Jeff spent another 10 minutes convincing the physiotherapist that he
had already attempted to use plungers (at her insistence) instead of the quad canes for Gavin . . . and that now we would like to
please order the quad canes. We went upstairs to the orthotics group to meet with Crista, who had replaced the straps on Gavin's AFOs. Then, we ran down to pick up Autumn. I answered emails on my Blackberry until we arrived home, right before
5pm, and then had one more call with my Marketing Ops Manager in the US.
Cooking/Dinner: In honor of opening night for hockey season, I made two cakes (with Autumn's help) and decorated one for the Toronto Maple Leafs and one for the Montreal Canadiens . . . for Jeff's party. We made three lasagnas (Jeff was super helpful) - froze two and had one ready for Friday night. Jeff grilled hamburgers - and I ate bites in the kitchen during the cooking extravaganza.
Curriculum Night: I was at Autumn's school by
6:40pm for my first ever parent/school night. We met the principal (who I had already met since I had to beg and plead our way into the morning session so it wouldn't conflict with Gavin's therapy home visits) and then went to the classroom for a presentation by the kindergarten teachers. I sat with Lisa, Alita's mom (who is Autumn's closest friend - and now bus partner - from preschool) and met one other mom, who happened to be the mother of Elias, who Autumn announced on the third day of school as her "boyfriend" (although I do think she means 'friend that is a boy').
Hockey Party: I was home by
8:45pm to eat some chips and salsa and tell Jeff all about the Elkhorn Elementary Curriculum.
Bedtime: Then, I excused myself from the hockey party by
9:30pm to head upstairs to read and pass out.
The crazy thing is . . . despite it being such a hectic, busy and long day . . . I actually really enjoyed it. Because I felt like a real mom for a change.
