When fingers aren't enough...

This just taken 10 minutes ago. I guess a good daddy would have tried to stop this. Me? I grab my cell phone.

When fingers just won't do. Twice the goods in half the time!

Letter to our cleaning service...

First of all, yes, we have a cleaning service. They come in twice a month and do all the crap that Allison and I hate to do...you know, clean. They clean the bathrooms, vaccuum, dust (sometimes), and generally straighten up.

A little background. We started using the service last year when my student loans got paid off. We looked into it and the service was less than what we were paying for the loans, so hell, we hadn't seen that money in 10 years, why not spend some of it to make our lives easier. This past Christmas Allison's mom paid for our service for all of 2007, which was a great surprise. It blew both of us out of the water.

Right off the bat I asked that they don't come in the middle of the day (between Noon and 2:30), because thats when Ian (and now Leah) nap. Well, lunch, storytime and THEN nap. One of the owners (it's a husband & wife who own the franchise) acknowledged my request and said it wasn't a problem. They listened for a week....

I then called and asked again. They didn't honor my request. I called the branch the following week and spoke to the WIFE. It worked for awhile, but after a few weeks they started showing up in the middle of the day, several times RIGHT as I was putting Ian and/or Leah down for a nap.

So I then told the cleaners themselves of my request. They were genuinely surprised, saying that the owners never told them of such a thing. Again after a few weeks they stopped honoring my request.

Today I came home at 12:30 from being out and about all morning and the cleaners were still here. Leah had been asleep for 10 minutes, so this was the breaking point as to whether she would transfer still asleep into the house. I drove around for 10 minutes and came back home and they were still here.

I was fucking fuming. So I parked in front of the house and just sat there while Leah proceded to wake up (unlike Ian, she'll wake up within 5 minutes of the car stopping). 10 minutes later the cleaners packed up their car and left. I fake smiled and waved to them.

Below is the letter that I just sent to them through their website...I changed the company and owners names to protect the ever-so-guilty....or at least not-so-innocent:

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Cockface,

I am sending you this comment through OurServiceBlowsMonkeyNuts's website because efforts to make this request via phone (and in person to the cleaners) apparently falls on deaf ears.

I have asked you, Mr. Fucktard, twice and once to Mrs. KnobGobbler on the phone about our request to NOT have service in the middle of the day (between Noon and 2:30pm).

At least twice since then, I have turned your cleaners away when they showed up around 1pm. The first time they seemed surprised, so I didn't blame them, but let them know of our request. The second time I just politely asked them to come back later in the day. Several more times I have come home after 12:30 and the cleaners were still at the house, so I needed to drive away.

The reason that this is such an issue for me (as I have probably told everybody that works in your branch) is that the middle of the day is when my kids nap. One sleeps okay in the car, but the other one doesn't, so I NEED them to both sleep in their beds to get a good nap. To be honest, the reason behind my request doesn't matter. What matters is that I made the request and was assured it wouldn't be a problem...but it is.

The only reason that I have not cancelled our service with you is because my Mother-In-Law paid for our service for 2007. We are happy with the cleaning job that you do, but it irritates the living daylights out of me to be ignored as I have been, when I have been told that my request is 'not a problem'.

Is the request a problem? If it is, please let me know and I will begin searching for another service for January. If it's not a problem, lets do what we have to to ensure that my request is fulfilled.

If we have to switch to another day besides Tuesday to make sure I don't get service in the middle of the day, that's fine. If we have to be the very first or very last client of the day, that's fine. Or anything in between, that's fine. I am simply requesting (for the last time) that the cleaners not be at my home betweein 12:00pm and 2:30pm on the scheduled day of service.

As I said, I like the service that you provide, but I have a VERY hard time believing that "the corporate office felt strongly that from the beginning, we have demonstrated the importance of caring for each and every client", as is stated on your website.

Mr. Donkeyballs and Mrs. Floppytits, please let's work together so we can maintain a long and happy business relationship.

Sincerely,

The Toddler Chasin', Diaper Changin' Maniac.

Ian's first major Injury!

I won't tell too much of the story, because Allison did over at http://dupreesgal.blogspot.com/.


But we went to Ian's Doctor yesterday because Ian still wasn't right with his arm. He agreed that it was something more than the Nursemaid's elbow diagnosed at the hospital. So today the kids and I went to the Children's Hospital to see the orthopedist.


Ian was WAY nervous beforehand, because all the doctors have made him move his arm and poked and prodded him. These doctors today were great, moving his arm as little as possible and were gentle with him. The Xray technician was a pro and kept Ian in a good mood throughout.


The Doctors concensus is that it could be a broken elbow (nondisplaced supracondylar fracture for you geeky types). But he couldn't really tell. And the only way to tell for sure is to put a cast on it, and check xrays again in 2 weeks to see if anything has healed.


So that is exactly what he did. Ian chose a color and the doctor wrapped up his arm. I was really nervous at first as to how Ian would take having a cast on....but of course he friggin loves it. Granted its only been a few hours, but he was showing EVERYONE in the hospital his new cast.


Now all I have to do is keep him away from sand and water for the next 2 weeks! We have an appointment to get it off and take some Xrays for the day we go down to the beach for our vacation, so it'll be perfect timing!!!



Allison also already posted the picture, but since I took it and this is MY territory, it's going up here too!!!

Camping trip recap

Last weekend Ian & I went with our friend Greg to a music festival in upstate NY (near Albany). It's a festival (Camp Creek!) that I've been to several times before, but never thought I would bring a kid to. I only say that because I was never in the mindset of bringing a kid there. But last time I went (about 2 years ago) I noticed they had a 'quiet' camping area for families and had activities for kids in the open field near the main stage.

I decided to take Ian this year because he digs live music and there would be plenty of kids to keep him occupied.

So last Friday we loaded our gear, hooked up the camper to my car, and set off for 3 days of fun! I went into it knowing I wouldn't actually 'see' much music and it was more about the experience of going there with Ian. And that's exactly how it turned out. We pulled onto the property where the festival was being held and Ian took immediately to the 'security' staff (bikers) and they even gave him a baseball glove while they searched our car and camper. (Normal procedure, they don't allow glass of any kind).

We find a spot in a field along the treeline to set up the camper and immediately Ian began playing with Nicole, a 5 year old next to us. After that point, it was hard keeping Ian by our camper because all he wanted to do was find Nicole or any other kid around.

All weekend all we did was play with toys, kids or walk around watching a band for a few minutes or taking a walk in the vending area. Below are some pictures from the weekend:

This is AniCorne Skywalker on friday evening. The sky opened up with a huge thunderstorm about 15 minutes after the camper was completely set up, so of course we had to break out Ian's new poncho (and no, we didn't go out in the thunderstorm, this was after the thunder and lightning passed:

This is Ian in his new Jerry shirt. I swear he's the one that picked it out, he loved the hand print on it!

This is Ian playing with his new lightsaber with his friends on Saturday evening. I wasn't keen on getting him any type of sword, but they were inexpensive enough and the kids were actually really careful about not hitting each other with them (for the most part!)

This is Ian Sunday morning exiting the camper in his new Tye Dye. He actually wanted to buy a hemp dress, but I convinced him that this might fit him better!

Prince Ian at the kids tent

Ian & his honeycakes gal pal, Nicole after not seeing each other for like, 45 minutes: