Sunday, July 6, 2008

Whole Lot of Nothing Goin' On

There's been quite a bit going on here, but not a whole lot of knitting. I am further on my Kaw Kaw Monkey socks. But that's all the knitting I've done this week. Here's a poorly lit picture of my progress. Enjoy it; it's the only picture in a very wordy and mostly knitless post.

On Thursday and Friday, I subbed in my son's preschool classroom. This is the first time I've worked (paid work, that is) since I was about 6 months pregnant, 4 years ago. About 7 years ago I worked at his school as a Kindergarten Teacher. That's also how I managed to get him into such a great preschool. Honestly, getting your child into a good preschool here can be as hard as getting into college! It's absolutely dumbfounding. I have at least 2 friends who each applied to 10 different preschools and got into none of them. For our preschool, there were 200 applications (or so I've heard) for a class of 24 kids. But since a lot of those kids were legacy admissions or siblings, there were only about 4 open spots. I had a good time being in the classroom again. In fact, I'm going to continue subbing over the summer. I've even (briefly) considered going back to school to take the classes required to be a preschool teacher. The hours are good, the pay isn't bad, the kids are fun. But until BoyMonkey is in school full time, all day, it just isn't worth it for me.

Over the long weekend, we tried to get some stuff done around the house. We (okay, it was really Roger) cleared off the shelves in the office, tossed everything we don't need anymore, and put everything else back on the shelves in a much more organized manner. I was hoping to change a couple things in BoyMonkey's room, but we didn't get around to it. For the Fourth of July, we mostly stayed home and cleaned. We barbecued chicken and corn-on-the-cob for dinner, with watermelon and strawberries for dessert. The only fireworks we saw were some illegal ones being set off down the street, but we did watch fireworks on TV. Roger and I weren't very impressed, but BoyMonkey enjoyed it (and loved getting to stay up so far past his bedtime) and was glad we weren't too close to the noise. He didn't want to go see the fireworks in person because he was afraid they would be too loud and scary.

Yesterday we went swimming at the JCC. We had a great time. BoyMonkey and I especially love swimming. Since the pool was warm and indoors, the chilly weather outside didn't affect us. After swimming, we bought a couple toys at The Ark (awesome toy store, but nothing on their website yet) and then went for a lovely lunch at Ella's.

The past few days I've been noticing once again that BoyMonkey is a different kid. He's been so loving and affectionate lately. I hear "I love you Mommy, no matter what," many times a day. One of his favorite pre-nap and bedtime activities is to give me "so many kisses." There are normal kisses, eye kisses, ear kisses, cheek kisses, head kisses, hair kisses. The list can go on and on. He's so tall. When did that happen? All of the sudden, he can reach the doorbell without even having to reach. It seems like just last week he could barely touch it when he stood on his tip-toes. His vocabulary is constantly impressing me. His adorably incorrect pronunciations are still there (he is a boy, Mommy is a girler; he likes to play on the pinano). His ability to focus on one activity has greatly increased. He already knows our full address including city and state. I remember learning that in kindergarten. He's just growing up so fast! I have to write down all of this before it changes again. I wish I had kept better records when he was a baby. There is so much that I was sure I could never forget (he is my first and so far only child; how could I ever forget?!?). So many mannerisms and mispronunciations that he's grown out of (he used to say "aye" for yes). So much I know I've forgotten. I am especially loving this age and don't want to forget the magic that is 3 1/2.