One Busy Week Down, One Ahead...

Tomster posing for passport pic

 It's been another busy one here this week. We were back to school for a full week, plus a full week of ABA, ST, OT, skating for both Tom and I, as well as a bunch of other stuff that came up.

The pic above is (when it's cropped) Tom's new passport pic, necessitated by me realising that since we're going to the UK in March, I needed to check our passports. Bugger. Out of the 5 passports in this house, 3 of them need replacing, including the two most expensive ones, the UK ones. Luckily they are still valid, but need replacing before we go nevertheless. The worst one to do is the US one. The US makes both parents show up in person to apply for a passport for a minor, even if you're just renewing it, so we had to schedule this around ABA, speech and OT today, before 4pm and when Jeff was able to come. We walked into the post office at around 3.45 and timed it perfectly. We waited maybe 10 mins, but behind us were probably 5 people waiting for them too and they take ages...
Anyway, in addition to this 2 parent rule (unless you have gone through the documentation to do it without other one) the photo requirements for the US are more strict too and often the only way to do it is to go somewhere that will do them for you, for usually around $10. Photo booths such as those in the UK are non-existent. It's a pain. I hate doing passport pics.
The new camera came in useful again as I posed Tom in front of a towel-wrapped chair. I did discover the key to getting him to do what I want though (stop looking up, open your eyes etc etc) - I would show him the pic that was wrong and tell him what I wanted. Just that visual seemed to help. If we'd been doing this at Walgreens, it would've cost me $50 with the number of pics we took.
The other problem is meeting the frame requirements, 2 x 2 inches with the whole chin must be whatever distance from from top thing. Who takes a portrait pic in a square shape?! The US is weird. I did however find a template in a free piece of software on CNET called Cam to Print. Other best thing? It has templates for UK passports too. So, pics are done and the US peeps accepted it. $105 spent. Bleurgh.

Also done are the UK pics for Tom, I just need to get the things signed now (we can do them by mail to the embassy in DC, but we need someone to countersign) and sent in. Oh and take my new pic. That'll be fun. Also not fun is the fact that my UK passport will cost over $250 and even Tom's is around $160, by the time you add in fees for everything.

Looking forward to a 3 day weekend here, thank you very much MLK. Then, the routine changes next week since one of our ABA tutors has an internship going on, so, we'll be going to 5 days a week of ABA instead of 6, but with slightly longer sessions on the other days. Also next week we have Tom's RDI evaluation. Very excited about this, despite us having to drive for Denver for it, and the fact that it will be yet another thing on Tom's and our plates. Ah well, no rest for the wicked.
Ooh - in other news, the BACB confirmed that my PhD is acceptable for BCBA. Woohoo!