In Bosnia, You Get a Free Cat

Well, you get the free cat if you set out food and the cat likes you enough to keep coming around an let you pet it.This is one of the stories Gaz has related to me from one of her school friends, whose family is from Bosnia and who sometimes gets to visit. I love it, not only because it's a cool story, but because she's thinking about places that aren't here, learning that things are different and not-so-different in these distant places. I hope she gets to see all the wonders of the world, preferably on her own dime, but I would gladly use her as my excuse to do some globetrotting if I could.

Gaz has almost finished three weeks of school now, and today was open house day. I got to meet her teacher, who not only seems very nice, she's a Loyola alum. That just makes me like her more, since I have yet to meet a reprehensible Rambler. And Gaz is, in Mrs. H's own words, an angel in class. A very messy angel, though--I saw in her desk, and couldn't help but clean it out a bit. I did leave the lollipop wrapper in there, but put all the pencils and crayons in their proper place, and I located the long lost eraser. But the important things are that she's doing very well (100% on her first spelling test), she's focused in school, and she's tolerating the after-school time with the neighbors reasonably well.

It's Marathon Kids time again, and she's crazy excited about that too. She's talked one of her friends into coming with us to the kick-off. I'm not sure how well this friend will do with running a whole mile, which is what Gaz tries very hard to do, and might even succeed this year, with her longer legs and increasing stamina. I got her to run with me for a half a mile one Saturday before she got distracted by a playground

School for me is very intense and makes blogging and photo uploading even more sporadic. It's been a good Gaz day, so I wanted to get this down before I fall alseep. Which will be very soon.

School and other things

School's been out for a few weeks now, but I wanted to recap some items from the kindergarten year:

• Having volunteered a few times both in the classroom and at mealtimes, I can say that Mrs. K. did a hell of a job in light of the kids and their various behavior issues, and that she was a much more fair judge of Gaz's academic and social situation than I was (more on this in a bit).
• The kids really don't have time enough to eat either breakfast (seven minutes) or lunch (12 minutes). I hope that Mayor Emmanuel's plan to extend the school day gives at least a few minutes more to either meal, preferably lunch.
• It only took me most of the school year to figure out that most of our after-school meltdowns were on days when I let Gaz play for more than 15 minutes on the playground after school. She needs to run and climb and hang out with her friends, but she also needs a substantial recharge period after the stresses of the day. Now I know to show up with a proteiny snack and get us heading toward home after 10-15 minutes of play. She has many opportunities to play with the neighbor kids, so she's really not being deprived.
• The final report card? Perfect.

I take back my grumpiness about Mrs. K. Having watched her at work, she constantly displayed more patience and demanded more correct behavior than I had expected. She didn't rule with an iron fist, more like a well-worn leather gauntlet. It was a hard bunch of kids. Some are very poor, and some clearly come from homes where they do not get much attention or affection. One little girl whose backpack I fixed continued to run up and hug me every time she saw me the rest of the school year--the wonders one safety pin will do. Some kids were clearly intelligent but lacked focus or were intelligent but obviously spent a lot of time around mean people. The children weren't mean spirited, even the the one kid who usually looked and behaved like a rabid caveman, but they clearly displayed their upbringing. This makes me all the more conscious of what I am teaching Gaz by my example.

Gaz has been promoted to the gifted class, along with a number of her friends. We are all excited and relieved. Two of the neighbor kids have already gone through this class with this teacher, so we know in advance that she's pretty tough and doesn't have much patience for silliness in the kids. I think this will be good, if difficult at first, for Gaz. She's smart, but easily distracted. With the whip being cracked on everyone, and the less-than-interested-in-learning being removed from the classroom equation, I hope she'll improve her focus and learn to reign in her own goofiness, at least at school.

Right now we're enjoying day camp. It cramps our travel plans, but she's having a great time, making new friends, and she gets to go on a field trip every week and has pool time every day, weather permitting. She keeps calling it school, though, and that's a bit strange to me. But considering that it runs identical hours to actual school, I suppose it makes sense. It's a little culture-shocky, despite its fun, though. At school she's the ethnic minority, but at camp . . . let's just say that there's not one but two Madisons in her age group. Strange that there's not more of the younger neighborhood kids at camp. We do see a number of her school friends after camp lets out, and they usually cavort together on the playground for a while.

And with that, I better post this before I forget again.

Briefly: Literacy

I'm under deadline, but wanting to post this before I forget again.

Gaz is reading, with little to no help from us. Every day so far this week, her Roberto tally starts with a book that she's read aloud to us, and finishes up with what we've read to her (another visit to The Voyage of the Basset and our first foray into The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). She wrote some simple words on her homework last night (it was "extra homework for smart students only," so Gaz said) and not only did I not have to give her any help, she was off and writing before I could even offer assistance.

Last weekend she read The Monster at the End of This Book to Gabe, and I suspect she will read to him again after his baptism on Saturday. She is really looking forward to reading a story to Trixie, and also to giving her some hand-me-down dress-up clothes.

This morning I also attended the awards ceremony for the kindergarten and first grade kids, and Gaz got the only two awards kindergarteners can get: perfect attendance (in your face, winter!) and good citizenship.

Basically, we're all glowing with pride over here, and working to keep the good momentum going.

School, etc.

Jeez, now that Blogger has stopped telling me about all it's fab new features, I can finally type something! Not that I will be typing a long something, though, because I'm about to fall over. But first things first.

Gaz is finally in school. (Check out her back-to-school get-up! She picked it out herself, as you can probably guess.) I got her registered with little trouble on the 2nd (the third attempt being the charm), and classes started this week. It's somewhat shorter days this week, which is a drag on many levels (one of them is Gaz's lunch period is so short that she's not eating most of the food I send with her; that's one drag that I am especially frustrated over), but it's a massive adjustment for everyone. I'm still not sure how *I* feel about this school, but I don't think it's monstrous. Gaz's teacher *does* have some strange, trollish teeth. . . . But anyway, I'll be happier when Gaz is less keyed up all day and night.

Gaz loves school. She sins excited songs every morning as we walk to school, and the stretch of sidewalk that takes us to school has one section where someone once drew a Batman symbol on the wet concrete, so we even get to geek out in a DC Superfriends manner twice a day. She enjoyed gym today, and is looking so very much forward to art class that she has plans to bring in a special piece of painted wood to give to the art teacher, whoever she is. She's in class with one of the neighbor girls, which is more fantastic than I can begin to describe. They get along already, and now not only do they get to spend more time together, we have an easy connection for getting Gaz to and from school in the event of some kind of emergency or schedule insanity. We love the neighbors anyway, and now they're even super useful. What could be better than that?

We have had some difficult sleep this week (Gaz woke me up in the wee hours of Tuesday morning to ask me to tell her a story, and to ask for a drink of water, and to ask for company on a bathroom trip . . . ), and my girl has been much more short-tempered with everyone and clingy with me. I know this is just a transition thing, and I am trying to give her all the extra support she needs to keep on being her big, crazy self. We'll get through this. We did okay overall with preschool and weaning; we can survive the kindergarten adjustment.

But how am I holding up, people ask. You would not believe how well I am doing right now. I've got so much editing work that I have been desperate all summer for school to start up again. Working from home and being the stay-at-home parent at the same time has been nothing short of hellish for me* and has resulted in many weeks where the dishes overtook the kitchen and started singing medleys about overthrowing the slovenly human oppressors. (You who have mechanical dishwashers: you are lucky, lucky creatures who darned well better appreciate your modern luxuries.) We're managing to maintain appropriate levels of apartment hygiene, but clutter is another story.

So no, I'm not at all upset by the start of the school year. It's making life tolerable again.

But once more, I am frustrated by the needs of work interfering with my spending time with Gaz, especially now that she needs extra cuddles and reassurance to get her past the stress of full-day school. I try to spend the time from after-school to Mark's arrival home and dinner time with her, scheduling my work day for before she's up and while she's at school, but she's been waking up quite early. We're having to do the other hard transition of less me at bedtime and more Mark, and she's really used to me being the one who gets her settled in more often than not for most of her life.

I am very far behind on blogging, uploading pictures, replying to email, visiting relatives, and who knows what else (apart from the dishes; I know how miserable the dish position is on any given day). I have no idea when I will be digging out from under the backlog, but between Gaz and work both needing me and everything that had to be done for school registration, I have been completely tapped out. I do hope to get more regular with the blogging again, but anything longer than your average Facebook status update or Twitter entry is difficult for me right now. Please be patient (and send patience. And coffee. And scones. And sleep!).

* And specifically: exhausting and cranky-making

Goodbye, Blue Sky

Yesterday was the big end-of-the-year party at Gaz's school and now we're kicking off our summer vacation by lounging around in pajamas far later than we generally could on a Thursday.

I dropped Gaz off at the usual time and ran back home to finish making the snack Gaz has been promising her friends and teachers all week ("apple smiles," which are apple wedges with cream cheese and mini marshmallows arranged into a mouth-like configuration). I got there just in time to start up the video camera and record the singing portion of the party. Gaz, naturally, was the one who announced the performance and somehow, despite her height, ended up being in the middle of the front row. She apparently spent all her ham points then and there, though, because later when the kids wanted to take pictures with her, she was suddenly very shy.

The kids got little preschool diplomas and a copy of the book "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More," which was a big enough hit that I had even heard the chanting at home. My disk ran out of space part-way through the stuff distribution, so I have no video of the chaos that ensued once all the food was unpackaged and set out (and there was TONS of food--our neighborhood knows how to throw a serious party). We had three tables full of food, and about 1/3 of that was cookies, cupcakes, and donuts. Gaz only had one cupcake, and only fought me a little when I insisted that she start with some spaghetti. As I expected, she completely ignored the apple smiles.

Gaz had a moment after a while where she was suddenly upset and tearful, but not well able to explain why. She's gotten really attached to school and the routine and especially her teacher, Miss Monica. So I let her dance and helped with clean-up for a while. At long last, I coaxed her away from school by telling her of the present from Nana that I'd been holding for just such bribery: her very own pair of Twinkle Toes shoes. They light up a dark hallway like the sun and she loves them to pieces. For most of the afternoon yesterday, she wore only underpants and her new shoes.

And so we have said goodbye to Blue Sky Classroom. I'm sure we'll be back to the community center again, especially if we are able to make use of their after-school-care services in the future. It's a little bit sad, but we're working on things to keep us occupied. We've got phone number for play dates and I've rounded up a couple of friends to invite to Gaz's birthday party. I've blown it with respect to finding an appropriate day camp program (most are for 5-year-olds and up--so close!), but I'm sure the Old Town School will not fail to give us something to provide a bit of structured fun.

Photos, Life, and Bloggy Help

I'm in the process of uploading many photos. Don't look now--it will probably take all night. I haven't labeled or tagged any of the pictures. Since it's been so long, I figured that people would just rather see them first, clever captioning be damned. So that's what you get.

My potentially exciting news, which I am still partly waiting on (very impatiently, as I was to have heard something in "late April," only we're just about out of April) is whether or not I'll be starting law school this year. If not, I am determined to get in next year. I'm on the waiting list, but I was hoping to have some kind of definite idea by now. (As it turns out, there might not be any definite idea until the start of the Fall semester, but I sincerely hope that I know one way or the other before then.)

Other than my schooling, I'm also having fits about Gaz's. The CPS is not really the most functional organization in the world. I applied to some magnet/cluster schools, but we're languishing on waiting lists there too. Registering at the local neighborhood school is also a frustration, as we can't accomplish that until August (when Gaz gets these two ridiculous vaccinations that the CDC doesn't even complain about until you're over six), and looking into after-school care (assuming that in the fall I will either be in school or seeking employment) at the community center has also been frustrating for many little reasons that don't bear whining about on the Internet. Suffice it to say that I feel like we're in a Joseph Heller novel, but with less war and more children and bureaucracy.

Which brings me to my final point alluded to in the title. Mark has finally consented to blog those little things that slip my mind before they can get posted. Gaz says some amazingly weird things constantly, but with all the LSAT preparations, I am not retaining the adorableness as eloquently as I once did. So hopefully you'll be seeing more frequent posts in the near future. Just as soon as he accepts the invitation. (Mark, if you're reading this right now, that's your cue to go click the link.)

And now it is way past my bedtime. Enjoy the pictures, once they're up!

Much better

Today we employed the snowsuit and the hood of her coat instead of additional pants and itchy hat, so there was much less fussing on the way to school. The new scarf worked perfectly, keeping her face nice and covered, and keeping her legs warmer made her less upset about everything else. It also helps that the windchill is dramatically less than it was yesterday.

Live and learn. I ran into our neighbor on my way home this morning, and she said that they had trouble getting to school yesterday too (they go to the elementary school we walk past to get to our little school), so I feel less like a moron.

Yesterday as we made our way home, Gaz asked if I could pick her up today with the stroller instead of her having to walk. In light of the nap she took yesterday (and this kid hasn't had an afternoon nap, apart from days when she was really sick, for about two years) I think this is a good plan. I just hope her legs aren't so long now that her feet will be dragging!

school and vaccines

Gaz's second week of school was marred by an evil, evil chest cold (what is it with this kid and chest colds?!). On Tuesday as we walked home, she complained that she didn't feel well, and also that she wasn't looking forward to the fire drill the next day at school. I assumed the two were related until she developed the cough and fever that evening. Friday we went to the doctor to get an official opinion on the cold and get Gaz on the list for the H1N1 vaccine, which our doctor assured us they keep getting more of, but they only do the vaccines by appointment.

This past week Gaz made it through a whole week of school again, but we had a little meltdown on Thursday. I thought the week would get easier for her as the days wore on, but I hadn't allowed for the cumulative exhaustion of each day building up quite so much. It was picturesque and memorable, and I hope next week we can completely skip any sort of tantrum. She's been insisting on an earlier bedtime this past week, so I think if we just roll our schedule back a little that will fix most of our problems. At least, I hope that works, as she refuses to nap even while sick.

This weekend we had a nice but all-too-short visit from the Grandparents Mitchell. While everyone else was out having a good time, I went to check out the free city-sponsored H1N1 vaccine clinic at a conveniently-located city college. Since I'm in the high risk group (asthma--don't get any funny ideas, youse), I thought I should take advantage of the opportunity. I was surprised to find that they had the flumist as well as the injection, so I may bypass the annoyance of dragging her down to the pediatrician's office and just take her to the next clinic day. I hope Gaz being generally healthy as a horse will qualify her for the flumist. I can't avoid the needles, but it would be nice if she could. If not, they do have a Blue Bunny ice cream vending machine in the lobby.

School Daze

Gaz has now successfully completed her first week of preschool. Best of all, we managed to survive it.

Getting to school was only an issue twice, and then only because Gaz frequently refuses to believe how cold it is outside and so refuses to put on her coat. You'd think she was a Yukon nudist or something. After I explained that we weren't leaving the house without her coat on, and if she never put on her coat she would never get to school that day, she grudgingly complied. I didn't even make her put on a hat most days (though I brought hat and mittens every day, in case she wanted them). I suppose as problems go, that's the kind you want to have. And I know in a few years that whole "if you don't obey you can't go to school" thing won't work quite so well. I'm milking it while I can.

Coming home from school is a very different animal. She really doesn't ever want to leave once she's there. Day one there was a screaming, sobbing tantrum all the way through lunch (fools that we were, we thought going out for lunch would perk her up) and all the way home, to the tune of about an hour and a half. Day two we didn't go out for lunch, and just screamed and cried all the way home. Day three I bribed her with Halloween candy. It worked much better than I expected, and she was so very compliant (and I was so wiped out) that I took her out to lunch. Day four the candy worked again, though there were tears about not getting hold the black bear. Day five I bribed her with the promise of a special treat (Dunkin' Donuts is on the way home) but she was still mopey about not being able to bring the pink floam until we started collecting a family of bright yellow maple leaves that had freshly fallen on the sidewalk. I was glad to have taken hand sanitizer with me so we didn't have icky leaf hands when we got our treat.

While at school, Gaz is apparently a joy. I have yet to hear about her having any difficulty at all, and yesterday when I stopped in to get her, the program director came up to me with Gaz's file (oh no!) to give me a printout she made of some goofy face photos of Miss Gaz (whew!). They had been taking the kids' pictures to put with letters to Santa and Gaz made a lot of silly faces. She's definitely my kid! So we've got bonus pictures. I love 'em. We've also got school pictures coming up soon. I'm excited to see how this goes.

In other school-related news, Gaz and I journeyed forth to River Forest last week to entertain enlighten some psychology students as to the workings of a four-year-old girl's mind. She said a lot of things that made my little nerd heart glow with pride ("What do you want to be when you grow up?" "A Transformer! Or a fairy that transforms into a scientist!") and some that made me groan a bit ("What animal would you like to be?" "I would like to be a pig, because pigs don't have to poop in the potty."). It turns out that that pig comment, according to the professor, represents thinking on a higher level than most four-year-olds, though, so I guess that's a win. What a way to prove your mental prowess! Gaz was a champ with the interviewing, and even wrote her name on the board (and I quote: "AGAAAA"). We had a good time and want to thank Auntie Abby again for inviting us out to her class. :)

Happy Halloween!

Thorn & Mr. Lizard Mummy
Originally uploaded by georgiegrrrrl

On Friday we went to the community Halloween party at Welles Park, where Gaz had oodles of fun playing games, winning prizes, and, most importantly, starting her candy collection for the year. She was not disappointed! She even ate most of the apple they gave her for breakfast this morning.

Today she woke up late and wanted to go trick-or-treating immediately. We delayed with meals and art projects as long as humanly possible, then got her dudded up to hit the shops in Lincoln Square. We didn't notice any trick-or-treaters out in our neighborhood, and I figured the safest place to take candy from strangers would be at easily-sued places of business. It turned out to be everyone's good idea to stroll the avenue and collect candy there, and Mom even got to duck away for a bit and have some coffee while Dad and Gaz concentrated on the serious business of sugar acquisition.

This year's obscure costume (Thorn from Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost,, if you'll recall) was actually recognized by one lady, who even sang a bit of the Hex Girls song! So if you're ever in Lincoln Square, throw some money at Hanger 18, and tell them it's because someone behind the counter there recognized the costume. :)

We're doling out the treats very conservatively. Can't start down the cavity path when we've had such wonderful dentist visits so far.

The other big news is that Gaz finally starts preschool on Monday. She's been moodier than usual lately, and I expect this to continue until she's settled into her new schedule. For now, she's excited but nervous. I think she'll do fine after this adjustment period. Waiting an extra two weeks for things to get started didn't help, I'm sure, but it's a brand new program and they needed a little more time to get things ready.

Mark it on the calendar

This evening, Gaz has been reading. A whole pile of animal names, a few verbs, and even an article. Tonight in addition to reading *to* her, we're going to try having her read a bit to us in one of her "pre-reader" books. I think she's technically read other words before now, but I didn't make a note anywhere as to what she read or when, so I could be misremembering. But I'm pretty sure she read something while we were out in recent days.

All was well until she tried to write the letter K. But we've got a plan to get up early in the morning and work on that.

Five days remain until she starts Pre-K. She's very antsy for the schooling to commence. I hope her enthusiasm continues!

I know, I know

It's been AGES! And I have no good excuse now that we're all reasonably healthy. I still have this nagging cough, but that's nothing a little Delsym can't handle.

So what's up with us? First, let me direct you to the Flicker link o'er yonder, which I have just this second updated to go to the set for this Gaz year. Whee! There's not a whole lot there yet (we left our battery down in Evansville during the last trip), but there's her birthday party and assorted madness.

Gaz has been feeling fine, but unfortunately her follow-up urinalysis showed bacteria again. We pumped her full of antibiotics before she had a chance to get really sick again (woohoo!) but it looks like she has some imaging tests in her future. We're just waiting on word from the doctor as to when she wants them done. In the meantime, we've got a little collection of empty specimen jars to facilitate the process of keeping tabs on how much bacteria she's growing. On the up side, she's back in the land of the toilet trained and has been having no problems remembering to get to the bathroom in time. We've had only one nighttime accident (apart from the one when she was sick, which doesn't count IMO), and she's quite pleased with herself over her progress.

School has started through MidWestWorld, but we languish on waiting lists. Things may be looking up, though, so Gaz might yet make it into preschool this year. Keep your fingers crossed.

Let's see. . . Gaz can write her name, though she sometimes gets the letters out of order or runs out of space on the page with her giant letters. We do a lot of pre-reading workbook activities, and she follows directions from books much better than she does for me (isn't that always the way?). She's covered in stickers that didn't come off in the bath as well as I had hoped. Which is to say that some of the picture parts came off, but the sticky stuff lingers and is covered with fuzz from her blanket.

This weekend we went to the Milwaukee Art Museum and discovered that she doesn't like art, because it's boring. She did like watching the "wings" close on the building and the little markers and watercolors I got her at the gift shop, though. She was mildly impressed with her first visit to The Safe House. I expect that will change as she gets older.

So that's the general update. More news as it happens (and I remember to blog).