Yesterday I happened upon a folder on one of the computers that seemed out of place - My Videos but not in the Documents folder it was on my desktop! It was from one of my old harddrives that was dying and I copied it to the new computer so I would finish backing them up onto DVD... I opened up the folder and watched some of the videos and it really made me reflect back over the past 4 years and the adventure since I became I single father... What a ride it has been and how Christian has changed over the years! I still look at him as this little kid but he has grown so much (literally and figuratively).
The first video I saw was when he was 4 years old after Grandpa and I built part of his play structure and he came home to the surprise of getting it and some other videos of him playing at the playground with Zach... I looked at how tiny he was back then, some baby fat around the belly, chubby cheeks - but still inquisitive and independent.
My how things have changed. Slender, athletic, grown up (going from around 3 feet to being slightly over 4 feet 4 inches). These days he's still inquisitive but he's not as cautious as he was back then. He's more confident now. I've really noticed a big change in his attitude this year. Listening better to teachers and coaches but still making things fun. He tries hard to do the right thing and is hard on himself when he doesn't.
Another change I've noticed is, believe it or not, in his hair... For the first couple of years I kept his hair long. For the past 2 years we've kept it shorter and it's been a nice change. This year, though, there is a physical change in the amount of blonde he has in his hair and it looks great. When he was younger he had a patch of blond hair on his left side over the summer and then his hair was mostly brown. At least to me it was more brown then blonde but I suppose technically he has "blonde" hair. This year he has a streaked or frosted appearance in his hair that I'm sure some adults would pay a ton of money for It looks great and it's all natural...
It's actually hard to find a good picture of his hair as the light and the way it comes into the camera changes it... This is close though... Loving it!
Christian keeps me busy, we all know that! As I keep saying his personality is great, there is no denying that but it can be VERY --- VERY --- VERY --- Challenging! Headstrong, independent, social, stubborn, curious, argumentative... Knows EVERYTHING and of course he's always right! All the things that will be great for him --- when he's older! But as a parent, it's very frustrating at times.
But along with those moments of frustration there are rainbow moments where he just shines. Christian can make friends anywhere, any time in a matter of seconds. It comes so naturally to him. At the same time he WANTS to make new friends.
I drop Christian off in school and, yes, I still walk him to his classroom. While there he sees a kid and tells me, dad that kid is new to the school and is in his class. After that, he walks up to him, points me out and then takes the kid "under his wing" (so to speak) to go out on the playground and play. In the past other parents have told me how appreciative they were of Christian for doing this. In preschool he did it with every new kid in the door and it really makes it easier for those kids when they are new to know there is someone there that will play with them and get to know them!!
Back in December or January Christian's dentist said he needed to see an Orthodontist for an underbite... But I completely forgot until we went to the dentist again in August. So I scheduled his Orthodontic appointment and we had the first evaluation visit yesterday.
We went to Dr J. Patrick Dunbar here in Folsom (referred to by our dentist). Nice guy who seems to work well with kids. He did an examine (no X-Rays or anything at this point, that comes next). It involved looking at what his jaw looks like open/closed, looking at his bite and teeth, etc... Pretty basic but enough for him to let me know where things are at...
So Christian does NOT have a class 3 occlusion (underbite) as his dentist thought. He has a crossbite... His Orthodontist said he'll need to have an expander in place for about 5-6 months, he may or may not need braces, if he does it would only be the front 2 teeth.
But that pallete expander does not look comfortable. Here's a pic from a website - there are different kinds and types, but this is the basics of it. It is cemented onto the teeth and after it is put into place then each day a key is turned to force an expansion (1/4mm per day). This is done for 3-4 weeks and then it just sits in the mouth for a couple of months holding everything in place while it heals.
So many websites say it does not hurt. Some say you just feel a pressure. Others say that when the key is turned it hurts a lot for 1-15 minutes. And the kicker is, I'm the one that turns the key!! If it causes him pain then I am not looking forward to this! There is a palette expander that does NOT require the turning of a key - I hope, but doubt, that's the one he needs.
Now I just need to decide when we'll do it all. I first figured I would wait until 2012 so I can plan the flexible spending account to save some money. But I'm a bit worried about the effect of the expansion on his speech and ability to do sports. Most reports say speech will be different, but it gets worked out after a week or two. I don't think it would cause any pain jumping into a pool, etc, but I don't want to risk it if there is any chance it would impact his swim season.
Well, I FINALLY decided to upgrade to HDTV service. Obviously I've had TVs capable of HDTV for quite some time and it is used with the XBox and the PS3 for games and movies. But with the upcoming TV season plus the Olympics next year I really wanted to get HDTV up and running.
It seems pretty straight forward. I've been a DirecTv customer for 8 years, so I just call and order it... Come to find out, though, that existing customers are treated like crap. To upgrade to HDTV they require you to pay about $300 in equipment - but you aren't buying the equipment, you're just paying for it... You also have pay a montly lease fee, etc... I don't care about the monthly fees, but I'm not paying a hundreds of dollars to upgrade to HDTV!
So I called AT&T regarding U-Verse and they would install everything for free, the have 1080i service, just like DirecTv, Total Home DVR, etc... The monthly rate was in-line with DirecTv. This was a very viable option. Reading reviews the early reviews were negative, but more and more the HDTV is getting better reviews. But I would prefer to stay with current provider and there are references online that you could contact the retention department and they would get you everything for free --- but that they had stopped that practice and would only discount it. It was worth a try, I contacted DirecTv, talked with retention and they offered another $100 off, so $200 for the equipment. Bummer.
I called AT&T on Monday, they came out on Tuesday and installed the service. Picture looked great, everything seemed fine. Setup my recordings. Went to watch the recordings last night - no go. They said they were recording, but didn't Double Bummer!! Reset/restarted all the devices, no go. Crap. It was midnight, but I called Tech Support - they were going to have me reset everything, but I insisted I already did and we moved on. They had me do a hard-reset of the DVR. That did the trick. Now everything works!! But I could also see the recording capacity - I'm supposed to have at least 65 hours of HD, but it only shows 45!! UGH! I have an OLD DVR box!!! Tech Support told me to call billing on Wednesday morning.
So, I called billing to work through it, they transferred me to tech support - DSL support. They then transferred me to UVerse support. After working with them they transferred me to another support group - but I was disconnected while waiting... Called UVerse Tech support and after working with them AGAIN they needed to get this over to Sales Support but this time the tech support rep did everything, staying on hold and describing the issue with Sales Support and the end result - they are mailing me one of the new DVRs Some good news!!
So I'm happy with the HDTV that UVerse is giving me... The picture has been great, the DVR is good (now that it's working). It's not TiVo, but I wouldn't be getting a TiVo DVR with DirecTv either... Having made my choice I go to cancel my DirecTv service... And NOW the retention rep offers me a free upgrade to HDTV with a Whole Home DVR and second receiver... UGH! If only they had offered it before, too bad - AT&T is already installed and I'm no longer satisified with the DirecTv service... Oh well, their loss...
[Update: Got the new DVR, had to call tech support at 2am to get it working, but they got it provisioned properly and working... And I had 80+ hours of HD recordings possible - which si great since I was only expecting 65!! Been running it for a week now and I love it. Working great, no issues so far!]
It looks great and it's all natural...
Double Bummer!! Reset/restarted all the devices, no go. Crap. It was midnight, but I called Tech Support - they were going to have me reset everything, but I insisted I already did and we moved on. They had me do a hard-reset of the DVR. That did the trick. Now everything works!! But I could also see the recording capacity - I'm supposed to have at least 65 hours of HD, but it only shows 45!! UGH! I have an OLD DVR box!!! Tech Support told me to call billing on Wednesday morning.
