Nathan had his second appt with his speech pathologist today. Before we saw his speech pathologist, a UCSF staff took pictures of Nathan’s face (front and left/right sides). With our meeting with the speech pathologist, we told her how many words he is able to say even though they are not quite clear but at least it is a good start for him. But he can say ‘Hi’ well. When he says hello, he says it ‘a-lo’. When he says apple, he says ‘ap’ leaving the rest of the letters out. The speech pathologist made an evaluation of him and she believes that since he is starting to pick up some words, he can start going to a regular speech therapist. There is a speech therapist near us but we still have to find out if our insurance covers it. There are other speech therapy offices in other cities as well but we still need to look into these places more and get more information. After speaking with the speech pathologist, another UCSF staff came into the room and spoke to us and asked us other questions about Nathan. After we talked to her, we went into another office where nine UCSF staffs (including the doctor who performed Nathan’s surgery) took a peek at Nathan’s palette to see how well it is developing. As usual, his appt went over 2.50 hrs. Nelson was getting worried about our car because most of the parking spaces are only up to 2 hrs. But good thing we didn’t get a parking ticket.
When my son has an appt at UCSF, boy his appt is usually very long. At times, we wait in the waiting room to be called for an 1hr. Nathan still has plenty of UCSF appts in the future. Because of work and all, we haven’t made other future appts for him yet.
After UCSF, we drove to Pier 39 to take a look at Princess Cruise: Sea Princess. We will be going on a cruise to Alaska next week. The boat will sail from the Port of SF. Glad we don’t have to worry about taking Nathan onto a plane since the ship sails from SF. So today, the Sea Princess docked at Pier 35 to sail for Alaska as well. Then it will come back next Thurs Aug 18 which is the date we will be going on our cruise… it will be Nathan’s first cruise (well he won’t actually remember anything since he is still very young). We went on an Alaskan cruise before (I think back in 2003) but it was a 7 day cruise. This time we will be going on a 10-day cruise and we will be visiting two cities that we have never been before (as well as return to the other cities that we have seen already).
So on the day of our cruise, Nelson wants to check-in early, have lunch on the boat then walk for a while at Pier 39 before leaving the Port of SF. For me, I can’t wait to see the coast of SF. I have seen the coast but viewing it from a plane. It will be a different experience to see the SF’s coastline from a boat.
The Sea Princess is not as nearly as big as the cruise ship that we took last year to go to the caribbean (Royal Caribbean: Liberty of the Seas). Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas is 160,000 tons. Princess Cruise Sea Princess is only 77,000 tons. But to me, a cruise is a cruise… I won’t have to cook for 10 days!!! Actually 14 days. After the cruise, I will be accompanying my husband to Las Vegas for his conference. So once we arrive back to Port of SF, my husband and I have to hustle to unpack our dirty clothes and pack clean clothes then head for the airport. We won’t be bringing our son to Vegas though. My inlaws will watch him.
On Aug 18, this will be Nathan’s first cruise:
After taking a peek of the Sea Princess cruise ship that was docked at Pier 35 in SF, we went to Pixar Child Care to take a tour of their facility. Nathan will be 2 this October and we want him to start going to a day care before he turns 3 yrs old. Pixar Child Care has 4 sections: Infants (6 weeks to 1, I think), Jr Preschool, (2 – 3), Preschool (3+) and Pre Kindergarten. The thing that worries me is that what if Nathan is not completely potty trained yet? Will the Pixar Child Care not accept him? Glad to know that even though Nathan is not potty trained yet for Preschool, the Pixar Child Care will train him for us! Woo-hoo! I don’t think I can be in the toilet room all day waiting until Nathan uses it. Breakfast and afternoon snacks are provided except for lunch. If Nathan is accepted, we can either bring him his own lunch or have the child care provide the food (which is $4 a day).
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Our guide showed us different classrooms. The classrooms (well since it is a Pixar Child Care) are named after Pixar characters like Colette, Jesse and so on. I think one of the rooms is Jack-Jack. I forgot. But I know that one room is Boo which is a room for infants.
Here is Nathan playing with toys in one of the classrooms:
We wanted to put him into Jr Preschool but our guide told us that there is a long waiting list for the Jr Preschool. Since there is pretty much no waiting for the regular Preschool, Nathan may have a better chance of getting in… perhaps sometime next Spring 2012 or when he turns 2 years and 8 months. We already put his name down on the waiting list plus gave a non-refundable fee of $25 to keep Nathan’s name on the list.