Sunday Post with Berls | The one with ALL the appointments

The one with ALL the appointments

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kim @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

News at Home

Sunday

Today was birthday recovery day. As in, I did very little. How did one, fairly low-key birthday party wear me out so badly? Thankfully Dante slept until 9:30 this morning so we all got to sleep in. I did a little bit of clean up, Dante’s laundry and that’s basically it for today. I took Dante down to the pool again today to swim… and while I was there I broke my FitBit :(. I’ve had this thing for like 5-6 years and I could have sworn it was okay to wear in the pool. But it must not be, because the cover just fell off and there were the gears and stuff just floating in the water. Since I use my watch A LOT I decided I would definitely be buying a new one, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go FitBit again. While I was researching which new watch I wanted, Kiko tells me that the fix Zach did on his iPhone yesterday isn’t working again today. I called Zach, he did some research and turns out, Kiko’s phone has a “fatal error” and it’s outside the repair window. So now Kiko needs a new phone. Anyone who knows me, knows I ABHORE Apple. It really is principal at this point because my hatred sprung up like 10 years ago when the iPhone first became a thing – a ridiculous, overpriced, cultish thing. Anyway, I digress. Kiko had an iPhone because his last phone broke and Zach had one lying around. So would I buy an iPhone, no. But take a free one, I guess. Well now Kiko wants an iPhone. Thankfully I was able to do a trade in and get $50 for it. So he’s got an iPhone SE (2020) now for just under $400. And they didn’t even include the charger brick! Seriously?! I understand being environmentally responsible and thinking most your users joined the cult a long time ago and have this stuff. Some are newer converts. So now we also have to buy a brick, because the cable is a usb-c cable and we don’t have any bricks that works with. Anyway, good news is, Kiko understands my hatred of Apple a little better now. After I got Kiko’s phone, I finished my watch research and decided on a Galaxy Watch4. I haven’t used it yet, because all tech companies apparently are dumb and my watch came with 0 charge. So it’s charging. This has turned out to be a very expensive, frustrating day. But Kiko has a new phone and I have a new watch…

Monday

Not sure how I feel about the new watch. Still figuring it out. For one, I miss my silent vibrating alarm that wakes me up. I apparently haven’t set my alarms up correctly yet because they make a lot of noise AND at 6 this morning I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off. So figuring that out is definitely on the to-do list today. This morning Dante had his 2 year old appointment. It went okay. We were seeing a different doctor than normal because his doctor is out of the office and I just prefer her. As were talking about Dante’s delays, I saw the doctor write down “ASD?” – which I know means Autism Spectrum Disorder – and I just asked him about it. I don’t think he liked me being so observant, but I don’t like that he was speculating on Dante’s record and not saying something to me. Maybe he intended to and my asking meant he couldn’t slide it in as casually as he wanted to. He said he did write it with a question mark because there are some signs, but there are also several things that go against an ASD diagnosis and that we’ll have to see what the developmental pediatrician says – Dante sees them next month. I also had to complete a written evaluation – we did it at 1 year as well – and yeah, Dante is showing very behind in almost all areas. I’m trying to focus on the strength and growth I’m seeing, but it’s hard to know my super happy baby is struggling so much.

Dropped Dante at daycare after his appointment – and brought leftover birthday cake for the whole staff. It’s a win-win. They get cake, I get cake out of my fridge lol. Then I did a grocery pickup (since I didn’t do it yesterday). Then I had therapy at 2, which was perfectly timed since I have all kinds of emotions right now. After therapy I finally got the apartment back in shape from this weekend and finished Dante’s laundry. A little meal prep and then off to pick Dante up. He had a great day – including a nap! – and we had a great evening at home as well. I even played a tiny bit of The Sims tonight. I have a headache, so I’m going to try and get to bed early-ish.

Tuesday

Today was a good day. Dante had his usual Tuesday morning therapy today and we’re continuing to see some good progress. He played ring-around-the-rosy and stomped his feet in “If You’re Happy and You Know It” – so lots of progress. After I dropped him at daycare I came home and had pretty much no work to do (this is getting old y’all). I did some school work – took me a little longer than usual because I got really stuck on one part of the code that kept throwing ‘undefined’ but I figured it out and was very proud of myself. I also took my first test in my JavaScript class and Aced it! I finished laundry today and also caught up on some Married at First Sight (MAFS). I got in a walk and caught up with a friend – we text frequently but haven’t had a chance to actually chat in a couple weeks, so that was nice. Dante also had a really good evening today – making for an all around good day. I’m continuing working on the book I started last week – I’m taking a different approach than when I have written in the past. Usually I just write as it goes. This time I’m really fleshing out my ideas and plotting ahead of time. I’m hopeful that this will make the difference and I’ll really truly finish this book (I’ve finished others, BTW, but it’s been a while). Headed to bed, we have a big day tomorrow!

Wednesday

Today was FANTASTIC. Ok I’m super exuberant because I was DREADING today and it went exactly the opposite of what I expected. You may remember that Dante had a disastrous eye doctor appointment back in July ( I talk about the initial appointment on Thursday of this post and a follow up on Thursday of this post or you can just read my review on google maps if you want to get caught up). Well today we went to a new pediatric ophthalmologist (recommended by a coworker) and the experience was 1000X better! First of all, they never got confused about Dante’s age – they knew he was 2 the whole appointment. Secondly, they treated him appropriately, playing with him and using distraction techniques that made sense. There were tears and fighting with the eye drops and final exam – but that was to be expected. Even in this, they showed their expertise though. Things that had been long and drawn up, inadequately setup at the last place were quick and as painless as possible. Needless to say, Dante and I left not at all traumatized, unlike the first place. On top of that, the Dr. said that while Dante does have mild myopia and astigmatism, it’s so mild he wouldn’t recommend glasses until he is older and trying to do things like read – so in a couple years. They also said he does not have strabismus like the first doctor said. He called in an expert to confirm his diagnosis – and she said that no, Dante did not have Strabismus, he had Psuedostrabismus which is 100% not a problem and will go away on it’s own (and is basically because Dante has a wide nose lol). So the diagnosis was also much better. I’m SO GLAD I got a 2nd opinion.

I got home from the appointment and dropping Dante at daycare around noon – so my work day was super short. Especially since I had NOTHING to do (except this busy work project I’ll work on when I’m in the office tomorrow and Friday). I spent some good time today working on plotting out my book and I have a good rough plot for the first book in the series/duology/trilogy along with a great fully fleshed out plan for the world build. I’m debating if I should start writing or plot out a complete story arc for however many books I think it will be. I’m leaning towards continuing plotting, so that I have a complete plan when I start actually writing. It won’t be written in stone of course, but I think having a guide will hopefully help me really take this project to completion.

Thursday

Today was good but not AT ALL according to plan. First, I turned my alarm off with every intention of getting up… but fell back asleep. I woke up just in time to get ready, but not enough time to do my miracle morning or any of the stuff I usually do. And I still left about 5 minutes late. After dropping Dante at daycare I had a dentist appointment, which went well. And then I took a slight detour to pick up a library book. On my way to work I just felt blah about going in, especially since I was going to be able to leave in like 4 hours anyway. So I decided to play hookey-ish. I went to my brother’s instead and worked from there — I had nothing to do as usual — and I shared updates on the book plotting I’ve been working on. They gave me feed back and we bounced ideas of each other and I’ve started plotting for the second book, which I think will be it. I think it’s going to be a duology.

After I picked Dante up from daycare – he napped today!! His daycare teacher said she rocked him and he fell asleep in her arms. So sweet! – we had a nice evening playing and watching TV. Dante is babbling so much more. I think he’s going to say “dada” as his first real word and I’m super jealous. BUT if he starts talking I’ll be so happy, I don’t really care what he says first.

Friday

I had bad stomach pain last night wake me up several times – I don’t know if it’s just my body saying, “hey, you know how you used to eat right? Could you start doing that again?” or if I caught something but I slept really bad and woke up so tired this morning. Needless to say, I did not do my miracle morning. And I got out of the house about 10 minutes late. Thankfully it didn’t matter, since I still have pretty much nothing going on at work. I took care of all my work by like 11 am and then spent the rest of the time reading and making my meal plan for next week. I’ve also been troubleshooting the battery life on my watch. I love the watch, but the battery life blows. I think the conclusion I’ve come to is I’m going to have to charge it overnight. That means I can’t use it for the sleep tracking features, which sucks, but I think those are the features I need least. It also means I won’t be able to use it as my alarm to wake up – at least not the silent alarm I’ve grown accustomed to. I wish they designed these watches with batteries that you could switch out. I’d happily buy a second battery that I used while the other one recharged overnight.

Today at 12:45 I got an email that the hospital where I work was opening up appointments for 3rd Pfizer shots starting at 1pm and all hospital employees qualified. So I jumped into MyChart and was able to grab an appointment for 1:15. That’s right, I got my third shot today. It’s almost as exciting as when I got my second shot. The more protected I am, the less likely I am to bring something home to Dante. When I finally can get him vaccinated, I will cry. Besides that, it was a typical evening – dinner, playtime, clean up, bedtime. I’m trying to read an entire book in like 1 day (it’s so not going to happen, but I’m going to put in a valiant effort), so I’m off to read!

Saturday

Today was basically about 2 things – Dante’s playdate and reading Project Hail Mary. Dante’s friend who couldn’t come to his party last week because he had a fever came this week instead. Me and his mom do playdates frequently, but usually at her house so this was a change for us. We had a great time, the boys “swam” in our pool, they got Dante some fun gifts (a little chair to sit in and some rain boots – both things I really wanted for him), and we just enjoyed each other. They were here from a little before noon to until just before 4. The rest of the day I was either playing with Dante or reading. We have book club tomorrow and I just started this book last night. It’s almost 500 pages. I knew I probably wouldn’t finish before book club and I was fine with that, because I didn’t expect to like it much. I’m not much of a Sci-Fi fan, not when it’s actually SPACE Sci-Fi. Well, this book hooked me. I get glossy eyed when he talks science too deep (which is a lot) but at the core is a really good book. So I’m hoping I’ll be able to finish before book club tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Blog News

It’s time for fall season of COYER (Starts October 1)! This season is a scavenger list – you can join in, even if you haven’t done other seasons. Check out the details and sign up!

Last week on Because Reading

• [30 Aug] Slack: A Day in the Life of Ford Aston by J.A. Huss ★★★★
• [30 Aug] Taut: The Ford Book by J.A. Huss ★★★★★
• [30 Aug] Five by J.A. Huss ★★★★★
• [30 Aug] The Magpie Bridge by J.A. Huss ★★★
• [31 Aug] Tell Me Something Tuesday: Fall 2021 TBR List
• [2 Sep] The Mortal Blade by Christopher Mitchell ★★★★
• [2 Sep] The Dragon's Blade by Christopher Mitchell ★★★★½
• [2 Sep] The Prince's Blade by Christopher Mitchell ★★★★★
• [3 Sep] Dirty Desires by Nicole James ★★★½
• [4 Sep] My TBR List Choices: September 2021
• [4 Sep] #MyTBRL ~ 2021 ~ One Month Break
• [5 Sep] Sunday Post with Berls | The one with the settling in

Challenge update

This week I finished:

I’m participating in 4 reading challenges this year. Here’s how I’m doing:

• Backlist Reader hosted by Lark @ Bookwyrms Hoard: 33 books
• Library Love hosted by Books of My Heart & Angel’s Guilty Pleasures: 7 books
• New Release hosted by (un)Conventional Bookworms: 8 books
• COYER (Summer) hosted by Because Reading: 25 books

I also reached my UPDATED goal of 100 books for the year this week. I started at 50 books, raised it to 100, and now I’m going to raise it again, this time to 125 books.

Added to My Shelf

I’m trying to be more responsible about keeping track of the books I acquire, so I’m going to start sharing them again. If I share them here, surely I’ll remember to add them to Goodreads, right?

How was your week? What are you Reading?

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