Friday, October 31, 2008

Things that go bump in the night

Kei is house sitting for his mom this week, so Mads and I have been home solo each night. Not bad, but we really miss him and our life is a little wonky right now.

Of course, Daddy not being home means that Mads and I watch pre-recorded episodes of "Hole in the Wall" until we fall asleep on the couch. Which of course means I wake up at 2 am, hot and unable to fall back asleep. (Yes, this seriously is routine for us, and it happens at least once each time Kei is not home overnight).

But this time, for some reason I decided to review the websites for the schools we are going to choose from to enroll Mads in for Kindergarten next year. The schools are all public schools, but I had forgotten that the open enrollment starts in January - and the scheduled tours for prospective new parents are starting. One of them is in 6 hours actually. One on hand, it's good that I decided to checkout the websites - but on the other hand, now I'm semi-awake and feeling anxious about Mads starting kindy.

I was really hoping to go to the tour that is in 6 hours, but think I might have to wait until the next tour which is on the 13th. I'm not sure if it's ok to bring your child with you during the tour...plus Kei would not be able to get out of work so last minute. Plus, let's be honest, if it's almost 4 am, I don't know if I'd be presentable and decent looking at 9 am to tour the really wonderful seeming school that I hope Mads gets into. I want to make a good impression, you know?

I can't believe this crept up so quickly. It seems like I was just saying that we have a year to decide on a school and that open enrollment tours weren't for another 6 months. Now, boom! we have 3 months to decide which school we want to put Mads in. Is he ready for kindy? Will we be ready? He's been picking up letters and numbers like a pro all of a sudden - but have we done enough? I hear of other kids around his age that can write their names, identify continents, and sight read simple words already. Mads can recognize his name, would rather cut apart words and rearrange the letters, and I can only convince him to hold a pencil "correctly" about 75% of the time. What about emotionally? Will he be ready to raise his hand to talk? Do they do that in kindy?? What about making new friends? The preschool transition was decent this last time, but when his two best buddies went off to kindy last September, he regressed a little and decided he no longer likes preschool. But in the past few months, he has also started saying "Good Morning" and "Good-bye" to his teachers - in the past he has refused to (he generally never has liked to say it to people, just teachers especially.) Will he make new friends? Ok, that's silly. Of course he'll make friends. I'm just getting nervous. Will he like his new teacher?

All these questions just sum up the biggest, truest question of all - how will I do when he goes to kindy? We plan for me to stop working (or at least dramatically cut back) once he's in kindy so that I can take him to and from school, along with being home for him afterwards each day so that we can work on homework together, talk about his day, and get him involved in after-school activities/sports. Will we be ready financially? Will I be able to put myself out of my comfort zone and introduce myself to the other parents? Will I really be able to be the enthusiastic and fun PTA mom I've been dreaming of being? Will I be able to make new friends too?

Monday, October 20, 2008

Money

So, here is the post where I lament about not having enough money. I'll complain that we have too many bills and can't get ahead on the almost-maxed-out-again credit cards we worked so hard to pay down. Lots of grumping and feelings of insecurity about my parenting capabilities due to not being able to send Mads to a Montessori school, pay the cost to take him to the zoo/museum/Jelly Belly Factory/on trips out of town, or work less hours and be home with him.

I'll ignore the fact that barely scraping by is still scraping by. I'll lose focus that we may not have much food, but we have family that cooks for us or gives us boxes of food for free. I'll forget that it's not what you buy for your kid, but what you do with them. Or maybe I will remember that, but still feel less than other parents who can provide those types of things to their kids.

So, there you go. Real blog soon.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Productive

We were majorly productive today. I woke up, had a good online conversation with a friend, made a scrambled eggs with ham omelette-y thing for Mads, and then watched a couple episodes of Arthur with him. Then, we played out front for a bit, walked to the park, fed ducks and played on the swings for an hour, then walked home. Mads had a tummy-ache when we got home, so he watched another episode of Arthur while drinking some tummy comfort tea. I made lunch/dinner. After eating, we went out back and put stuff away to prepare for the rain, he made himself into a mud monster while I talked on the phone with a friend, and then when Kei got home he cleaned up Mads and now they are at Walmart getting a tarp (to cover the VW Bus when it rains - the side door and roof leaks). Once they get back, we're going out to play Monster Mini Golf, then it will be home for bed.

Whew!

I actually want to put more little details in on this and have it flow better - but I'm short on time. Hopefully I'll be able to later :-)