And Friday was not much better

I think the title says it all.  After the issues I had with Ashley and pink eye in the morning, I decided it was best for me to stay home today and care for my daughter.  I did this knowing that I will be short on hours this week and I can’t make them up.  I’m a seasonal staff member at my place of employment, so I don’t have any options like PTO or sick time for this fiasco.  I absolutely hate staying home unless it is: covered by PTO, covered by Sick Time, or absolutely unavoidable.  I’m the kind of person who stays home only if I’ve vomited in the last few hours, am too dizzy to walk, or I have a fever of 101° or more.  I think this stems from being the sole breadwinner for so long and from my three month stint of being unemployed.  I’ve found that I go crazy when I’m not working, although I would be willing to try this experiment again once we’re living together on our own.  A major issue I had with being home all day was being here with my father who was laid off a few years ago and still is unable to find a job.  The sad thing is we were better off financially when I wasn’t working because my benefits covered all the bills with some extra for essentials.  Now I can barely make ends meet and I have fallen behind on some of my bills because of gas and childcare expenses. 

Childcare expenses, so you see I am paying my mother-in-law for watching my daughter get into trouble because no one is watching her closely enough.  I have a few examples, but the one that is currently pissing me off the most is this one:  I arrive to pick my daughter up just like every other day and everyone is out front because the heat in the house was oppressive.  I went in the house to get Ashley’s bag when my niece Jimena comes up and says that my daughter broke her Nintendo DS.  I ask her how Ashley managed to do that and Jimena tells me that she threw the DS out of the second story window of the house.  I am shocked by this revelation because Ashley does not throw things when we’re at home, let alone out of a window.  My mother-in-law Gisela confirms the story; Ashley was in her bedroom and chucked the game out of the window.  Gisela then proceeds to tell me how a few days prior Ashley had gotten into someone else’s room and tossed a bunch of clothing and a bottle of cologne out of his bedroom window.  I can’t remember exactly who said that I was on the hook to replace the game, but it was at this point I got mad.  To make sure I wouldn’t say something I would later regret, I picked up Ashley and left. What the hell is Gisela doing during the day if she’s not keeping an eye on my daughter whom she insisted she be allowed to care for?  The fact that Ashley did it a second time and it is going to cost me money to replace a broken object makes my blood boil.  She was obviously never yelled at the first time around.  Mind you this is only the most recent offense.  Also she would not have been able to toss anything out of the window if the screens were not in tatters on all the windows.

A few days before the window incidents Ashley apparently fell.  Now the fact that my mother-in-law has no idea how or when Ashley fell is the problem.  Then there is the fact that Ashley broke her fall with her face by the look of things.  Don’t get me wrong here. I understand that children get scratches, scrapes, and bruises all the time.  The issue is Gisela doesn’t know the facts behind the fall because she was not outside with my daughter when she fell.  Ashley is not even three years old and has no business being outside by herself or only under the supervision of one of her older cousins because they are children themselves and will not be vigilant of the little ones.  This house has a small patch of dirt for a yard that wasps like to burrow in and a driveway.  That’s the extent of the property.  A day or two later I noticed that one of Ashley’s two front teeth was getting a gray-black color to it.  After googling possible causes I found a Pediatric dentist that was accepting new patients with Medical Assistance coverage and we have an appointment for Thursday next week.  When I spoke to the dental assistant over the phone she said that as long as the gums around the tooth remained normal she was fine.  If I see any sign of swelling, pus, or blood in the gums around the tooth I have to bring her in right away.  Dios mio why this week of all weeks for things to go wrong?

Today I had a very unhappy girl for most of the day.  When she woke this morning up her eyes were glued shut which naturally made her extremely upset.  I had to hold her still with a warm dish cloth over her eyes for 20 minutes before she calmed down.  It took about 30 minutes to get her eyes open.  The hands down absolute worst part of the day was each of the four times I had to restrain Ashley so my mother could put the eye drops in.  We did this four times today, and each instance was better than the previous one.  Then we had the added bonus of keeping Ashley separated from her older cousin who comes to our house for part of the day for my father to watch.  The first thing Kay asked me when she walked in the door was where Ashley is.  Kay enjoys playing with her cousin since Ashley loves running around in circles and screeching, but today we were not going to allow any playing.  Pink eye is extremely contagious for the first 24 hours of treatment, so my mother and I decided to have her go out with Kay for the afternoon and come back after 2 when Ashley would be napping.   It worked out pretty well once Kay caught on to why we were keeping the two of them apart.

I’m going to try to get some sleep now.  I’m excited because tomorrow morning Ashley and I are going to visit Alberto in jail.  This will be the first time he’s seen Ashley since April 7, 2010 and the first time he’s spoken to me in person since that same date.  I really wish this wasn’t going to be a no contact visit, but after so long I will take whatever I can get!

Ciao