Kindgergarten 2012

Today I freaked out Paul when I told him that starting next fall we really need to decide whether to keep Anna in kindergarten at her current school or move her on into public school. Yes, we're just about there and it's time to really start comparing!

The end question really is: are we planning to put Anna into public or private school for the long haul? We're leaning towards public, and so now I guess it's really a matter of doing the research to make us feel good about that choice. Honestly, the public schools where I live are actually relatively good schools. I think the decision would be easier if we could say that these schools were REALLY BAD.

The things I really like about the private schools are the obvious: enriched curriculum, less institution, more individual, and from what I can tell, just more opportunities through field trips and hands on experiences. But the thing I really am turned off about private schools the most is growing up in a bubble almost. Sheltered, dare I say? Let's face it: the kids you go to private school with are not exactly going to be the people you work with on the outside.

The world's a huge place full of rich and poor and fat and skinny and short and tall and black and white (and all that in between). All kinds of religions and learning capabilities, not to mention personalities. These are real things and the real world and in my experience, the things you are exposed to in abundance in public schools. The real world isn't necessarily about the individual, right or wrong. The real world is a community of all types.

Sure we want Anna to have the best shot at an education. But honestly, it's up to each student and the parents to get the most out of it. Paul and I went to public schools with very limited opportunities, but once we realized our goals, we sought out the opportunities from everywhere. We're really successful people, not largely because of where we went to school, but because of our goals and our drive to achieve them (to be resourceful).

It's our job to support Anna, to help teach her, and to offer her the rich life experience that she could lack in a public education. Not only that, but we are as parents committed to the knock down drag out day to day involvement of her education, including supplementing where we think it's needed. A major goal we have for her in life is for her to use all resources. But it doesn't matter if you're in private or public school: if you don't have dreams and you don't make the most out of what you're given (from school and family) you'll have a hard time achieving any success.

...Written by a someone who has yet to really navigate the education system as a mother...

Last week Paul was out of town for about a week, and Anna and I had a 3 day weekend of just us because of the MLK holiday. We kept busy between her playing with friends, the downtown Aquarium, and a salon visit and a trip to see the movie Tangled. We’d never been to the downtown Aquarium before, and the exhibits were really neat. They even have some white tigers with just a thick piece of glass that separates you from them. It was so cool! The tiger would get right up to your face! Plus it was feeling frisky and so we got to watch it climb a tree branch a few times. Although the aquarium exhibits were really great, of course Anna’s attention was drawn to the rides outside. And of all the rides, her attention was drawn to the highest, craziest ride of all: that tower bouncy thing that takes you up really high and drops and bounces you. We’d rode the kid version of that one before at Legoland (Over and over and over and over because it was one of her favorites). And here we found ourselves at the aquarium measuring her to see if she was yet the required 42” to ride that ride.

 

She wasn’t tall enough. But the operator put her into the seat and she fit into the huge overhead harness safely, so there we were, rising higher than the I-45 overpass next to us, me holding her hand, watching to see if she yet realized this wasn’t really a kid’s ride. She kicked her feet and smiled over at me. Then we dropped.

 

Her whole little body tensed up and shivered hard as she got a pretty good feeling of what it was really like to be weightless. Then we bounced and she looked back and yelled the usual, “AAAhhhh!!!! THIS IS SCARY FUN, MOMMY!!!” Between the bounces were the giggles and again the realization that I continue to underestimate her, despite my best efforts not to.

 

That being said, she still refused to touch the sting rays at the aquarium exhibit J

 

And because I know how my child likes to “do that one again!!!”, I bought the “all you can ride” bracelets so we rode it FIVE MORE TIMES. And yes, I did get a mix of looks from strangers. Afterall, she was little.

 

While Paul was out we also did a lot of playing around the house. At one point I was dragging her around on the carpet by my leg, and while I thought her huge wedgie might be the worst result of it, it turns out the rug burn on her right butt cheek that lasted the entire following week was in fact worse. J Rug burn on the butt cheek isn’t exactly fun for a 3.75 year old when bathtime rolls around. She had showers for the week!

 

What’s been going on at work? Keeping busy but the travel seems to be less hectic so that’s been helpful. I do have 2 quick trips planned in February, but again, QUICK trips. While Paul was out of town last week he was attending a workshop on how to improve private practice physical therapy clinics and BOY OH BOY he learned enough to turn the clinic completely upside down, shake it out, and start over. He’s feeling super excited about it and just in the last week has seen improvements in dealing with insurance companies and cash flow. Everyday I ask him how it went because I know it’ll always be something new and maybe exciting. He’s also in the middle of floor plan development and lease negotiations for a larger clinic, so the clinic will be moving across the street to a larger facility, probably around in June. We’ll ALL look forward to the improved space! Business is great for Valeo, but it’s getting crowded. Time to expand a little.

 

Oh, here’s a link to the news clip that featured Paul and his clinic here in Houston! PAUL’s A ROCK STAR! It actually played on a Monday night pre-game sports show.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK22LnJNozw

 

I’ve just started teaching again for the spring semester. It’s the start of my third year and I’m just really realizing that all I need these days to prep for the lecture is a quick review of my notes. This stuff is starting to stick with me for real. I hope the students don’t mind that their first exam is the night of Feb 14. What? Not MY fault! The material just fell that way. I told them to bring chocolates to the exam and if they’d like, they can work by candlelight to create the Valentine mood.

 

To prep for the MS150 (April), I’ve started taking a Spinning class at NASA that coincidentally started last week. I say coincidentally because now I don’t have to motivate myself to get on my own bike and pedal while bored in my garage for the MS150 training. Instead I get to have my cardiovascualr butt handed to me M,W,F at 5:45am in a class full of others who are also working it, and I enjoy that oh so much more J My current plan is to hop off the bike and step over to the boot camp class also at NASA, also M,W,F and be home in the shower by 7:15am. I need boot camp because I need muscles. I still plan to run with my little run group on Tues and Thurs until I lose my sanity from too much exercise, which I suspect will be after the first 2 weeks of this. One thing I can say about Spinning class is that it pushes my heart rate WELL BEYOND what I do while running. My running is set at a pace and heart rate that is comfortable for me and I’ve never pushed myself harder (why, it’s so uncomfortable!). But in Spinning class, the instructor pushes us, and so I suspect that will help my running too and just cardio conditioning overall. Not to mention the MS150 training! Heck YEAH! This will be a good MS150 year!

 

In the meantime we’re making plans for Anna’s birthday party. She simply wants a repeat of last year: party at home with the Tumblebus and her friends. The exception this time is the cake: we’ve moved on from Yo Gabba Gabba cake to a princess cake. I asked her if she’d rather a cool space cake instead and she said, “um…well, maybe next time!” We’re scheduling the party for the afternoon of March 5. She turns FOUR on March 8.

 

Again I say that THREE has been so dang fun. People warned me that THREE was harder than the terrible TWO’s but not in this case. We did hit a “whiny” phase but it was short-lived and it faded when we started whining back to her (she hated that). She got the message. THREE has been so fun, and people tell me it gets even better. FOUR will probably just blow me away. As she’s getting taller, she’s getting more thoughtful. She’s recently started telling us about the dreams (and nightmares) she has at night. She totally emulates our habits so we’re trying to be cognizant of how we behave around her (Mommy, you told that man, “please” and “thank you!”). She’s aware of bad drivers, and knows her right from her left. I asked her which hand she uses to write with and she said “Left” and then “well…actutally I can use both hands!” She’s getting the hang of addition and subtraction through an iPOD app. She’s getting great at drawing her letters and a few weeks ago she came home with a family portrait that really actually represented the family, complete with eyebrows and stuff. Our baby can draw! She gets that from her dad. She feeds KC, fetches KC’s toys from under the couch, reminds me about stuff we need to do, and can totally fold towels. She can dress herself when she’s not being a booger about it. She’s still wakes up with a full wet overnight pull-up so I think dry nights are nowhere in sight yet, but we’re trying to not stress about it. At this age there’s enough going on around them.

 

I can’t remember how or when we’ve evolved into it, but we’ve gotten to the point where either Paul or I will lay down with Anna for bedtime after her book until she falls asleep. It’s not a requirement (I don’t think!), but it gives some down time to talk and cuddle and review the day and while most parents might see this as a bad habit (she should fall asleep alone), I don’t. Except for the fact that I too end up falling asleep and so I’m useless after 8:30pm when I wake up and feel like I just need to crawl into my own bed. Good news: I’m getting about 8-10 hours of sleep per night. Bad news is that there’s so much else I should be doing before going to bed. Let’s face it, there’s always something that needs to be done.

 

Today is parent-teacher conference day at Anna’s school. I remember the one from last year and it was really good feedback about Anna. This year, her current teacher is just so less communicative, I can’t believe I’ll get much valuable information from her but I guess we’ll see. Today when I dropped her off she went to the microscope that was at the table. She pulled out the little slides and started sorting through them! She called me over to show me what she could see through the eye lense. She showed me how to adjust the lense height. I watched her: her hair was down and long today, she was wearing a red dress, and she was engaged in that microscope. I was so proud at our little girl, and stayed to play with her for a little while because she just kept wanting to show me all the slides. I didn’t have my camera but her teacher snapped a picture that I hope should show up in the end-of-year books we get.

 

Life is good!

 

Anna's spontaneous "I love you mamma" are the coolest thing. Impressed the department store check-out woman today. They come out of nowhere and I totally realize I should savor them NOW before I'm begging for them later :)

The Law of Natural Consequence

I'm picking Anna up from school today and as we're walking down the hall, the school director hears Anna say, "no" when I ask her if she wants to put her coat on. It's 39 degrees out.

Director pokes her head out of her office, "Anna don't you want to wear your jacket? It's COLD outside!"

Anna: "no"

Director: "Anna do you remember what we said about coats in chapel today? What did we say?"

Anna: "to wear them."

Director: "right! You don't want to get sick!"

Oh please don't tell me the director thinks that you can get sick by....

Director, to me: "you know, students and teachers are dropping like flies around here, so we allllllllllll need to wear our coats!"

My God I think she's serious.

Me, acting enlightened: "Ooooh I seeeeeeeeeee. Anna do you want to put on your coat out by the door?" Strategy: make Director think I agree with her, try to brush this off, do not confront ignorance.

Anna: "no"

Director: "well this is what we do around here: do you want to put it on yourself, or Miss Walker, or mom to put it on?" With the hint of voice like I didn't know the only-give-them-options-you-agree-with trick...hello?

And I stand there conflicted, with the words "natural consequence" flashing in my head but unsure of how to use that in respectful self defense.

Anna: "nobody"

And I'm saved by the onslaught Of a group of parents rushing through and we move down the hall.

Here's how I come across to Director, I'm sure: a spineless mother who doesn't know how to get her kid to listen. But the real deal is that everyone knows you don't get sick by not wearing your coat! Your teachers and students get sick because they inoculate each other with their germs, and cold and flu season is such because when it's cold outside, people tend to congregate indoors more, thus sharing their germs more easily. There is no physiological basis behind getting sick because you're cold. Old wives tale.

So instead of being a disrespectful know-it-all parent (one of THOSE moms), I allowed myself to look like I don't know how to get my kid to wear a coat.

Here's how you get a kid to wear a coat: let them outside when it's 39 degrees. Works for me.

Disney

Anna did the 200m dash this year. That morning, she and I slept in while Paul, mom, my sister and her family all ran the Disney 5k. They all got cool finisher metals! So then Anna wanted me to run with her (parents are allowed to run with the kids), and at the end she got a metal too and was really humming on why I didn't get one! I told her I get mine tomorrow because I'm not finished running yet.



Paul and I finished the Half marathon this year with best personal times. 2:45. Faster than last year by 2 minutes overall. Not much I know but we stopped along the way for potty breaks and other. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! 27,000 runners this year makes for quite a crowd. All along the route there are Disney characters that will take pictures with you but there's usually a line so we just keep running because we're going for best time. I've decided that next year I'm scrapping the personal best for some good character photos. Just take my time and enjoy the route! We're a little sore but no injuries and we still hobbled around Epcot afterwards yesterday.

Next year we also think Anna will be able to pull off the 5k. All along that route there are Disney characters as well she'd love. She's capable now of finishing 5k and next year she'll be almost 5! Then she still qualifies for the kids' 200m run and Mickey's 1 mile. If she's up for it she could come home with 3 metals pretty easily :) We'll see!

In related news, Anna was tall enough to ride Test Track and Soaring this year! I'll never forget how exhilarated she was on Test Track, screaming "this is scary funnnnnnnn!" She wanted to do it again but it was late and the line was long. So maybe later. Then we waited in line for Soaring for over an hour. She did great with the long wait and had a BLAST on the ride. There's nothing more fun than hearing, "WOW! Look at that!" and watching her face through the ride. Seriously. Her reaction made it worth the wait. In fact her reaction makes everything more fun! Also since it's her third year we marvel at. The differences and progress since she first came here. It's really something.

Tonight she gets all dressed up, hair and nails too, for dinner in Cinderella's castle. The weather here is amazing, but that means the parks are more crowded. Last year with 30 degrees and sleet we got spoiled :)

Time to go!

AIAA done!

Last week I was again at the annual AIAA conference in Orlando, Fl. Once again it was the week before the Disney Half marathon and so once again, at the end of the week, Paul, Anna, my mom, and my sister's family flew out to meet me and kick off the marathon weekend.

This year at AIAA I was the co-chair for the entire Gravitational-Related Phenomena In Space symposium within the AIAA conference. I volunteered for this as a rookie last year, after Julie shot me an approving look when they asked for volunteers. It was a bit stressful year putting this together, especially since it was the 25th anniversary of GPSE, and also because I'd never even done such a thing! I added an entirely new session on educational outreach and invited some of the best speakers who have done the best projects for ISS and NASA. It was sooooo well received they may keep it for next year. I also put an ISS utilization focus on it thus year, which means I invited program scientists from each agency to come and give an overview of their agency's plans for ISS science. My chief tells me that the NAS AA for ISS (basically headquarters) Was surprised at how well this went over, and so it got rave reviews. The thing is I'm sort of a rookie to AIAA (went as a student a few times, and this is my second year as NASA), so I just thought to do things a little differently than they did in the past and it worked! Fresh minds, I guess.

On to the marathon weekend!

With bubble gum eyes of course!

Ice cream man

I'm standing in line at security at Hobby airport right now so I have plenty of time to blog from my new app :) My God I feel for all the cranky kids here today.

Oh and that woman in line behind me should really learn what personal space is...

Anyway, is there anything sweeter than a 3 year old holding out her coins to the ice cream man (OK one was actually a Euro she found somewhere)? Precious. The timing on his arrival was serendipitous, and is a story on his own.

Yesterday she pulled one of her rubberbands down to the end of one of her pigtails and she thought this was fabulous and asked for it this morning. Not exactly the look I would go for (ok it's not even really a LOOK). She also asked me for braids last week, and in that practice I am limited. And then the thought occurred to me this morning. Voilà! (it's little braided partial piggies :) with rubber bands on the ends ofcourse!)

Look what we grew!

This survived our garden somehow and a red and a green bell pepper showed up for picking on Saturday. We even ate them for dinner that night! Go us! Anna loved them.

New Year's hangover

Well this is an uncommon sight! She was only up tip 10:30 or so, playing at L's house.


Happy New Year! Let's do this!

My new #1 financial mission

Beyond anything else I do this year financially, my goal is to pay off my student loan debt.

If you knew how much it really is, you'd have the same reply Paul gave me last night, "Huh...in a year? How much debt is that again? In a year?"

I don't have the heart to post the numbers but let's just say it could buy a few houses around my neighborhood.

Three degrees (including covering out of state tuition) just about says it all. It hasn't bothered me so much until for some reason, a few weeks ago. It's just that it's time to attack it.

That's IT. It's time to pay it off. I don't know how yet, but it'll come. The clock is ticking for my 1 year mark. If I write it down here in my blog, it will happen.

PS, taking donations, LOL!

Testing my blog capabilities using blogpress from my iPhone. With photo!


Anna and
Miranda at Festival of Lights before Anna spilled very hot chocolate all over Miranda's shoes!!!

Christmas 2010 (and the weeks surrounding it)

She actually got this one LAST Christmas but I had to slip this in there

He admits he always wanted one

It was our year to spend it with Paul's parents (we spent Thanksgiving this year with my mom and family).

The biggest hit in Christmas gifts so far for her has been the LeapFrog Sketch pad and Lite Brite. Everything else seems to be getting equal share time. The bike that Santa brought her would get more use right now if it weren't so darned cold out. That will come soon enough!

The best thing about traveling for Christmas this year was waking up right next to her, watching her eyes pop open and say, "Mama, I closed my eyes and slept so Santa came!" Strangely enough, she wasn't in much of a hurry to rush downstairs to see what he left her. We just chatted in bed a little while and got downstairs at around 8:30am.

She first saw the extra gifts, and most notably, the bike by the tree. She asked who it was for and seemed to like it as she looked it over (the very bike she picked out and texted to Santa she wanted at Toys R Us). But her gaze swung to the stockings that were stuffed with a little fake puppy dog hanging out and she forgot about the bike and presents. For some reason, she was focused on the stockings, and in fact I think she was most excited about that going into Christmas day!

She was worried about Santa when he didn't eat that last cookie. Why didn't he eat it? Will he come back to eat it?

With all of this Santa talk this year, sitting on his lap was still a no-go. At least last year she mustered up the courage and went for it at the mall out of nowhere. The year before we did it as a family. But this year, she had none of it. In fact we waited in line, while she kept saying she was excited to see him and then when it was her turn, she fled. Later she'd say she wanted to give him hugs when he came to her house.

She's so much fun at this age. It was the best Christmas yet. And while she enjoyed the gifts, nobody certainly went overboard, and she didn't expect overboard. The whole Christmas season was fun, plus my mom was here for two weeks of it too. In all I think we went to less festivities than last year (by just a few) and there seemed to be less pressure about buying gifts and wrapping them and going to all of the parties and festivals. We even had an entire weekend where we did almost nothing. Even the tree was up early, as well as the lights on the house and the ginormous inflatable snowman in the front yard. Heck we even found time to buy new tree ornaments. I'm not sure where all of the ease and extra time seemed to come from, but it was nice. Now that Christmas is over I'm having to explain to Anna why the tree will come down, as will all of the cool lights in the neighborhoods she's come to gasp at on the evening drives home. Oh well, I think at least it will be easier explaining it this year than last year when she was 2 and couldn't quite grasp why Frosty and Santa left the yards and went into the attic "until next Christmas." In fact I swear it's something she would sporadically ask about here and there, even in summer.

Anyway, hope you all had a great holiday. Whether I have mixed feelings about lying to her face about Santa, or I harbor way too many questions about what her Lutheran preschool is teaching her about the holiday, there's certainly nothing like being a mom to a 3.75 year old at Christmas.

Form Factor

I'm getting into the shower, and Anna's eyeballing me. I can tell something's coming.

"You look like Nanna, mommy!"

And there it is.

I assume Anna meant that in terms of form factor.

I love my mother, but given the fact that she's 23 years older than I, I think it's time to revert back to post-Anna-bedtime baths for me.