We've kind of avoided the inevitable blog brag, but here it is. I'm going to try to get it all in one post so we only have to be annoying once :). Kiley is kind of crazy smart. It is both exciting and scary at the same time. She knows many of her colors - red, pink, yellow, and orange almost every time and on anything you hold up - blue, black, green and purple most of the time. She can sing the ABC song in its entirety. And, she has a number of sentences that she uses. Things like: 'I'll do it', 'I'll get it' (when the phone rings, she says this and then runs and grabs it), and 'Where is it?'. She says 'go for a run', 'put it back' (she doesn't want me to take things from her, but will say desperately 'put it back' and then do just that when she knows she has something she's not allowed to keep), and 'I want some. Apple juice.' She asks for 'more, please'. And says 'thank you' when you give her something. My favorite Kiley sentence of all is 'I love you!' She told Megan (her nanny) that out of the blue the other day and just melted her heart. She uses words and phrases not typical for an almost two-year-old like 'closer' when she needs to move her chair up to the table, 'tired', 'not yet'. Martin told me today she can pick out the 'K' and the 'Y' from the chicka-chicka-boom-boom book because she recognizes those letters from her name. She holds a pencil correctly and writes in tiny, controlled squiggles like she's actually handwriting. She can count from 1 to 10 but often skips 6.
A couple of months ago she started to be manipulative. Now, when it's naptime, she is 'hungry' - EVERY TIME! And when it's time to get in the car seat she wants to 'snuggle Mama'. With pretty much everything she enjoys, when it's time to stop she wants 'one more time'. She pulls on her pants and skirts, and keeps flip flops on her feet. I am encouraged by the motor skills and the visual recognition of letters in terms of ruling out some of the issues that Jake & Sydney had. It's weird to think that Kiley and I will be the shortest people in our house in a few years, and that Kiley might outsmart all of us. I am further convinced that one of the huge impacts of parenting - at least on me - is the recognition of how little we really have control over in life, and learning to give up the need to control - whether you want to or not.
On another note, things have been rough around here lately. The roof and my car both leaked with all of the rain from the tropical storm this week. And, we also were told this week by the hospital in Corpus that we have a week to find my aunt a nursing facility so they can discharge her. They have ruled out cancer and so it looks like all of these issues arose from the closing of her esophagus and the aspiration of food and drink into her lungs, which caused pneumonia, which caused sepsis. They couldn't get a feeding tube down her throat at all, so are inserting one directly into her stomach. They are releasing her into a skilled nursing facility in the next couple of weeks, and she has agreed to move to Austin. She will be transported via ambulance. I spoke with lots of places here last week that offer both skilled nursing and assisted living, and am making visits this coming week so we can narrow it down. Depending on the type of feeding tube and how often she is fed, some may or may not accept her as a patient. I've learned tons about medicare and insurance. Unfortunately, she let her long-term care insurance lapse in 2008, which was a discouraging discovery this week, but she is fortunate to still have good options for care.
I would seriously recommend that everyone consider long-term care insurance. From what little research I've done on that, it isn't cheap - maybe $250/month if you are older and $150 a month if you are under 45. At $1,800/year, even if you paid for it for 40 years, that's only $72,000. Granted you are forgoing interest or gains on that money invested otherwise, but the cost of ONE YEAR of nursing care in today's dollars is $70,000+. Like any insurance, it is a gamble, but with this particularly, I now understand the crux of the issue that my children will face without it. In a situation like this, you are left to make decisions based on averages. The average person with this illness or that will live x number of years. And, maybe you have enough money for that or maybe you don't - but what if you aren't 'average'. Do your children put you in a lower cost, less preferable facility because they aren't sure they could cover the difference if you blow the curve? That seems selfish when they are your beneficiaries, but if they gamble on the averages and assumptions on the many variables around the condition of an elderly person and lose, where does that leave any of you? Finally, I would look for a policy that pays for assisted living as well as nursing. Some nursing care is covered by medicare - roughly 80% of up to 100 days for every incident requiring a 3 night stay in the hospital. Assisted living is roughly 60-70% of the cost of nursing care - the numbers I'm getting currently are roughly $42,000 to $66,000/year - with very little covered by medicare. I am guessing many scenarios have people moving between nursing and assisted living in their later years, and would think it important to have insurance that would cover both scenarios. I'm stepping off my soap box now, but we will be looking into this insurance before we turn 45.
Christmas 2010
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