1. Sorry we missed your birthday,
Aunt Patricia! We had such good plans of taking cute kid pictures for you (because we're sure that's your favorite thing ever...haha...), but then, sadly #2 happened and sort of derailed our day... We hope you had a wonderful day, and we have no doubt Uncle Ben did your celebration justice! :)
2.
Finn. Sunday morning Finn spent 3 hours in the ER, from about 12:30-3:30, for croup. It's been a good run for him, folks. Almost 14+ months croup free...and official record in our house. He's doing okay now, but I still nebulize him every morning and at night. This was our first ER visit on our new insurance, so instead of it being a $100 co-pay it will be $1,000+ out of pocket. Sigh. Who needs to do anything remotely fun, ever, or pay your bills on time, right? ;) But I don't care. When my kid can't breathe, I'm not going to NOT treat him just because it will cost us money. Losing lots of blood and not being able to breathe are two big reasons to GO to an ER, in my humble opinion. Ah, croup, my old enemy. Be gone with you!
3.
Layla. There has been lots of thinking and talking about Layla and her schooling next year going on around here. We decided in May that she would most likely go to a very good montessori school near us, despite the fact that I highly dislike little kids going to all day, every day Kingergarten (
although, believe me, I completely understand why it makes sense for a certain population, and I think it's great that the state offers it free of charge...I just hate that there is no longer the choice for half day in my district. I think much richer, whiter districts still offer it in some places of the state...but not here. It's funny, because when I was teaching half day was the free one, and if you wanted full day at the school where I taught you had to pay! My, how things have changed... Anyway, Layla does NOT need every day, all day K...yet that is what she is getting). It's a long, complicated story in some ways, but I can probably keep it very simple by avoiding some details and most of my emotions surrounding it all. ;) I'll use bullet points, because I rarely have a need or opportunity to use them:
A. Layla is signed up to go to a great, free, public montessori school near us next year. It has a great reputation and only a 3% turn-over rate in the whole school, which means people come there and stay there...always a good sign. I love 90% of what I know about this school.
B. The one thing I don't love about the school is not something the school can even control: the length of the school day (and I guess also the fact that it's all day, every day). We considered a private school for just the year of K, but frankly we just can't afford it, and we'd lose out on our guaranteed spot at this wonderful montessori school for all the years to come, then...a huge trade off. So, I was just trying to make peace with the long school days. I'm sure LAYLA will do fine with it in the end, actually...but I don't agree with the philosophy behind it, so it kind of doesn't matter to me if she does fine or not. *I* don't agree with it, and I haven't been able to make peace with it in my heart yet. But that's still the plan for next year, so far...
C. For reference, the length of the school day would be something like 9:20-4:05. Is it just me, or is that INSANE for a little kid, especially a little kid that goes to be at 7:00 during the school year?? So, life outside of education takes place between 4:05-7:00 p.m., huh?? That's good enough? Family? Sports? Music? DOWN TIME, for crying out loud?? That's good enough? Sigh. And here I said I would try to keep my emotion out of it.
D. Yesterday I got an email from another school I applied to in the early spring, and where Layla was put on a very loooong wait list. It's a public charter school, so again it would be free for us, but it's farther away, and it's a classical education school. So, if you know anything about montessori (which I love for little kids), it's kind of the polar opposite of that in philosophy...and I'm not such a huge fan of it at all, unless you know your particular child would really and truly thrive in that environment, or your child is much older. It's very intense, lots of homework, very pressure driven for academics, lots of hyper involved parents (
which is a blessing and a curse), etc. Also, this school is 80% white...and the school Layla will be attending next year is 20% white. I am so much more comfortable with 20% white, for many reasons which I will not get into here (
and that was also a mental hurdle for me when thinking of keeping her at a private school for K...that is like 95% white! Good grief!). Anyway, this is a "good school," and the only reason I'm even considering it now is that they allow parents to take kids out at noon for Kindergarten if they want to!!!! As a charter school, they have a bit more freedom and flexibility like that. SO, that's huge for me. But I don't like the philosophy of the school, especially when I consider what I know about Layla.
So, Jonas and I have some talking to do. We have to decide by 4:00 on Thursday if we're going to take this new spot or not. I'm doubting we will, for many reasons, but it's very, very hard for me to think about turning down a free, half-day K option. Boooo. :( I dislike this stuff. I'm not super stressed out, but I wish I had more clear direction on what might be best for Layla AND our family. Ah, well. I'll keep you posted. As of right now, Layla's first day at K is September 10th (K starts 2 days later than all the rest of the kids, who all go back on the 8th).
4.
Cora. Cora is in love with rain. As soon as she sees raindrops of any amount outside she is immediately begging to go outside and play. It's adorable, as usual. ;) Yesterday I stood outside with her for some time while she played with great joy, and I huddled under and umbrella. Cora is also sloooooowly starting to come out of the very needy/clingy phase she has been in! Thank you, sweet Jesus!!! :) For the past two days I've been able to stand in the kitchen and wash ALL THE DISHES, start to finish, before she wanted or needed me...she just played happily in the living room or the toy room. Whaaaaaat? Who is this child? I almost forgot the used to be like that! It's SO fantastic. I can tell a marked difference the past two days in how *I* feel about life, because I can accomplish things AND have my child happy at the same time...imagine that?? She also has found one movie on Netflix that she likes (finally!!), which is a movie about pets. It's 45 minutes long, and she is in infatuated with it. She names she can say of animals never ceases to amaze me. And her talking, people. Wow. This morning she asked me for sausage by name...and then said "help, please!" when she couldn't get out of a toy car. I mean, seriously. She's 15 months!!! She's already said 3 and 4 word sentences a few times, as well! I look forward to seeing what this child does with life.
