Lightfeather’s Letters

Life is a little stressful right now. This new job Damon just started seemed rosier from the other side of the fence. When we were making the decision to move from Lucas to VC one of things considered was health insurance. Damon’s co-worker, who is married with no children, said he paid around 75 for the two of them so he couldn’t imagine it being more than $150 for the three of us. We used that figure as part of our “new” budget when deciding if the move was financially viable as we already knew it would be better in terms of “quality of life” since the commute is less than five minutes. Also, we thought that since he ended his old job on a Friday and started his new job the very next Monday, that there would be no lapse in our insurance coverage.

Apparently what they say about assuming is true as it created some massive ass of the two of us. After filling out all the paperwork and getting everything set up so that we could still use Kaiser, our same doctors, website and prescription setup that we picked out a year ago, it turns out that the “family plan” at VC costs $300 a month but if you are just married with a spouse it costs $75. That’s a massive increase for the addition of one child. I guess they just lump all family into one category so a family with a single child has to pay the same as a family with thirteen kids. That’s such bullshit.

Also, there IS a massive lapse in our insurance coverage. Our old insurance ended on September 1 and our new coverage won’t start until October 1. Apparently Damon understood the paperwork incorrectly and assumed that after 30 days at the job his new insurance would kick in. Apparently it’s 30 days after the first 30 days. Why they didn’t just say 60 days after starting I just don’t know.

We looked into using COBRA to cover us for the one month that we’d be uninsured but they want $800 for that one month of coverage. We just spent some money on a few new computer parts to upgrade our machines to be able to run warhammer and spore without having to keep settings on low. $800 was an asinine amount of money for insurance. Fuck insurance.

So the month of September is going to be a very dull month. We’re not going to drive anywhere or do anything that may expose us to unnecessary risk because any kind of trip to the hospital will just break us. We’d like to buy a house sometime but if we have an accident now that will destroy our chance to have one before we’re 80. If Chloe falls and hurts herself we’ll just have to use duct tape until October first. This really sucks because I was planning on driving down to my parents this month since Chloe turns two on the 10th and I turn thirty on the 11th. I wanted to celebrate but now this insurance bullshit put the skids on those plans. It’s all been postponed until the first weekend in October.

Right now, I hate America, our insurance and hospital system. Screw the retarded overpriced hospital charges that they have just because they know insurance has deep pockets. Something needs to change. I can’t live like this. If we ever find ourselves in a situation where we don’t have a job that provides affordable insurance we’ll be out of pocket so much money that life will be a bit sterile and unappealing.

Just pull my plug please.

Just a small update to let you know that a couple of days ago my daughter had another first in her life. I’ll set the stage…

It was hot out. Pretty all around mucky day. It was especially warm upstairs but since our electric bill has been stupid high the last couple of months I didn’t want to run the air conditioner.  I decided to put Chloe down with a fan on and dressed her in just a loose t-shirt. No bottoms. No tight confining onesie. Just a shirt.

So she plays in her crib for about 20 minutes and I’m downstairs listening to her on the baby monitor I hear her throwing things out of her crib and getting upset that they aren’t jumping back in on their own. She finally passes out. 

About an hour and a half later she wakes up crying like someone pinched her or something. So I race upstairs to see what the matter is. She’s standing up in her crib crying and reaching for me so I go to pick her up. When I reach to put my hand under her butt to lift her up, I grab naked tush, much to my surprise. I didn’t notice the naked right off the bat because her nighty t-shirt was just long enough to hide the missing nappy.

Apparently she ripped the diaper off and chucked it out of the crib after running out of blankets and stuffed animals to throw before falling asleep. She must have startled awake because she peed on herself. It was a short nap day. But lesson learned! Either she sleeps in a snap up onesie on hot days or I have to put those diapers on backwards.

After cleaning up the mess I had to sit and laugh. It wasn’t so bad though. It could have been much worse but thankfully she’d thrown EVERYTHING out of her crib before wetting the bed so I only had to wash one fitted sheet and the mat underneath designed to stop leaks from hitting the mattress.

Lucky me!

08.07.08 - Chloe’s first haircut given by mommy.

08.08.08 - Psyco Toddler Mugshots. Taken after getting caught trying to put cheerios where cheerios should never go.

08.12.08 - On our way to the electronic recycling center to deliver some old junk. Chloe is upset because I wouldn’t let her drive.

08.16.08 - First trip to the beach. It was fun but it was also the first day chloe went all day with not much more than a 10 minute nap. We had a bit of a breakdown later that evening. It’s hard for her to sleep in the car because her “big girl” car seat doesn’t recline much like her baby car seat did.

08.16.08 - Later that night before the breakdown we were playing around before bedtime. She was pretending to tango with a cat toy instead of a rose and whenever we said “Put your head on the pillow!” she’d drop whatever she was doing to take a great big flop onto a soft white pillow we brought downstairs to play with.

I gave Chloe her first haircut today. I did it myself this morning at about 7:40am. She woke up and her hair was covering her face again. I usually pull it back with clips or a rubber band but I guess I’d just had it.

I have never cut hair before but I think I did ok. I’ll post a picture later. I didn’t do anything to the back or sides… just cut her some bangs.  Damon seems to think I can cut his hair now. I told him I’ll buy him a flowbee.

Yay for photos!

06.11.08 – Chloe’s sandbox just arrived and we had no sand. Didn’t matter. Still had fun anyhow.

06.15.08 – Daddy bought sand! Chloe immediately tried to empty the sandbox onto the balcony.

06.20.08 – Grandma and Chloe playing in the backyard! So much fun! Chloe’s clothing seems to have dissapeared. She doesn’t actually want to swim in that pool. She just wants to throw grandma’s shoes in it while saying “Caca!”

06.21.08 – Grandma insisted we go for a professional photo shoot. She bought Chloe a dress from Vienna but it’s for a three year old so we had to put a few pins in the back so it wouldn’t look like a floral potato sack. Chloe didn’t like wearing the angel wings (they were really heavy) and she got really fussy when the lady was trying to set up the piano shot. It’s ok though, the teddy looks kind of sad to be there too… Here are the results:

06.28.08 – Grandma bought Chloe another pool because she didn’t really like the big one.

07.04.08 – It’s very late and we just got back from Chloe’s first time seeing real fireworks. Damon bought her a light saber but it didn’t work until I got it home and fiddled with the wires. Chloe appears to be thanking the Jedi masters for giving her the gift of a working light saber.

07.13.08 – Playing at Grandma’s again. This time she’s discovered how fun hammocks are and is always running up and begging to be put back in it.

07.13.08 – Crapped out after a very long weekend of fun in the sun.

I got the fairy picture and the one of her in jeans sitting cross legged with ivy behind her in 8 x 10 to put on the wall. I liked the lake background with all the white flowes much better but I think chloe looks better in the ivy photo. Out of the photo’s I took I like the Jedi prayer and the one where she’s sleeping the best. Her hair is just so windblown and crazy in that jedi picture haha! Cracks me up. It’s like FIREWORKS WOOHOO! *hair now standing on end in excitement* Then we get home and it sort of settles but not all the way.

Oh man, that sleeping photo… I didn’t want to pass it up but the room was SO dark. She’d been pitching a fit and got carsick on the way back home from grandmas. It was a long day because she woke up early, had a crap nap and spent almost the whole day in the sun outside. On the ride home she wouldn’t sleep. She just can’t sleep in the car anymore and it’s so sad for me. In addition she gets an upset stomach on long car rides to boot so we have to make sure to leave a couple of hours after she’s had anything to eat or drink so we don’t have to clean up the car. An empty tummy makes her fussy as well but it’s easier to deal with than a car full of barf. Seriously. She won’t starve.

So after all that we get home and I feed her and give her something to drink, brush her teeth, snuggle until she’s calm and put her in bed it’s so very late. I get myself ready for bed and pop in to check on her one last time before turning in for the night. She just looked so sweet after that bullshit car ride that I wanted to take her picture so I could keep that calm sweetness forever.

Of course I ran the risk of waking her up and having to start the night time routine all over again… so I stood there… and contemplated. And thought the picture would be worth one shitty night if that were to be my fate.

So first I tried taking it with no flash by the light of the hallway and the shot was completely black even with the camera set on “nighttime”. So I engaged the flash and crossed my fingers.

She didn’t even stir. Poor thing. She was so freaking tired.

Chloe will toss something in the toilet, close the lid,  say “Caca!” and run to find something else she obviously thinks is shit and must be immediately purged from our house.  =(

I am so glad she doesn’t mess with the flush handle yet. Now all our bathroom doors stay closed and I’ve put those twisty plastic orbs on the door knobs so she can’t get in.

Another issue is we have this garbage can that auto opens when you stand in front of it. It is so nice except now Chloe is tall enough that when she holds something up in front of the can it will open for her. And she takes that opportunity to throw whatever it is inside. I have no idea how many things have inadvertently been tossed out because of this.

I think I’m going to have to disable the auto open feature (boo) until she can understand that when she puts something in the can she’ll never see it again.

Another side story about the autocan. A few weeks ago a couple of flies got into my house because I left the screen door open too long. It was around lunchtime so I started cooking something and Chloe was playing nice in the living room, talking to her book like she was actually reading it so I was able to hear where she was.

I was facing the stove with my back to the garbage when I heard it open. My heart jumped up into my throat because I could still hear Chloe in the living room and [i]I[/i] know I didn’t trigger the can. An image of a generic home invader guy sneaking up behind me only to have the autocan betray his presence flashed through my mind.

I spun around to see a big fat fly sitting on the sensor and felt like an idiot.