Warping the Space-Time Continuum

Yesterday morning, I left the house at some unknown time after time X (where X is the time at which it is necessary to leave the house in order to get Universe Man to school on time). The traffic was normal, the kids were more or less well behaved, but I was stressed because if Universe Man is late, there’s a snowball effect because the traffic gets worse by the minute, which can result in Mr. Personality and ‘Parkle Girl being late. Mind you, nobody much cares if she’s late, but still.

Today, we left the house at time Z + 7 (where Z is the time necessary to leave the house to get Mr. Personality to his before-school piano lesson). As we made the left turn, he reported that he had not packed his piano books, which meant we needed to turn around and get them, resulting in us leaving the driveway (for the second time) at Z + 10. In spite of this, and the fact that it is known that it takes a minimum of 12 minutes to get to school, we arrived at school at time P + 1 (where P is the time piano lesson starts). A measly minute, but still, it was real.

I’ve been trying to repeat this feat all day, but alas, it appears that it only works while driving kids to school.

I suppose I should take what I can get.

5 a.m. Wake Up Call, With Soup

Finally, a use for robo-calling! I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of two phones ringing at once, just after 5 a.m. I’m thrilled that the new automated calling system functions so very, very well, and I know that they need to let families know as soon as school is canceled, but still, it was a very, very abrupt awakening.

Instead of the regular Wednesday routine, we had a nice, chaotic, but somehow relaxing day at home. Universe Man showed me his literature project, which was hysterical, and Mr. Personality finished the first draft of his book report. All by himself. It will need some editing, particularly because he quoted an important letter from the book verbatim (with quotes though, so no plagiarizing) and also some formatting. I’m very impressed with his work, even so.

It wasn’t all work yesterday, though. Mostly, it seems to have been cooking.

Universe Man decided that he wanted to cook soup for everyone for lunch. From scratch. Without a recipe. He told me what vegetables he wanted to use (potatoes, carrot, cabbage, peas), and asked for some help in organizing how to cook it, took a little bit of guidance about which (really, how many) spices to add, and cooked soup. It was actually rather good. So rather good that Mr. Personality went back for another bowl during dinner because I have to admit that Universe Man’s soup turned out better than the new soup recipe I tried.

During the end of ‘Parkle Girl’s nap, Mr. Personality and I started the baking I had planned. We tried a new cake recipe, to mixed reviews, and made some corn muffins for dinner. Then we made some corn chowder (the new recipe, which I could tell would likely be lacking in flavor when I read it, but thought I should follow the first time through. Lesson learned), and Mr. Personality and ‘Parkle Girl learned about the blender. No matter how we tried (and I even consulted the resident mechanical genius AKA Mr. Personality) we could not get the food processor lid back on after I washed it. I don’t think it’s broken because it worked just fine for the cake, but after 10 minutes of fiddling with it, I gave up, got the blender out, and used that instead. Life without kitchen gadgets would be a terrible, terrible thing.

Today, the sun is shining, the ice appears to be melting, and the kids are at school. I’m back to my usual, but I must say, it’s a lot less fun than I had yesterday.

First grade ho!

With quite a bit of trepdiation, we’re sending E to first grade next week. Surprisingly, making the decision didn’t take very much time at all. It’s so clearly the right thing to do. I’ll agonize endlessly over the whole thing until we know for sure that it will “take” and then I’ll probably keep agonizing over it anyway. (And in 20 years, E will be telling me that I ruined his life by not letting him go to kindergarten with all his friends. He is, after all, a middle child).

We took E in for evaluation this morning and the school administrator went through part of the testing with him before deciding that she didn’t need to finish it and that the best decision is to put him into first grade.

I worry about the socialization and his friends. He’s been in the same class with some of these kids for the past 3 years, and that’s a long time in his life. But the kindergarten is being split anyway and the classes are right across from first grade, and he already knows one of his teachers really well. We just have to hope that he is able to cope with first grade socially, and that his friends who are in kindergarten will still want to play with him.

I worry about what the other moms will say. I’ve known a lot of them for 3 years now, and I hate the idea of being perceived as the “pushy, obnoxious mom.” It’s hard to balance being an advocate for your child with the possibility of pushing too hard. I think we’ve been too accommodating in the past, and we’ve definitely found that the you have to stand up for yourself or your children to get them what they need.

I worry about what will happen when it’s time for second grade or third grade. “Skipping” a grade is only a stopgap measure for a kid like E. In a couple of years we’ll be facing what to do next. I won’t skip him again. He’ll already be a year to a year and a half younger than most of the kids in his class. This school does have a history of providing academic enrichment, and that gets easier to accomplish for them the older the kids get, so maybe by the time we get there, we’ll be able to tackle it that way. I don’t know.

And when I worry so much, I’ll just have to repeat my mantra. “These children demand so much of us as parents, but the rewards of being with them are equally great.” I guess that mantra is probably true for any parent, but sometimes the challenges are so enormous that I have to remind myself constantly that the rewards are enormous too.