Belated Happy New Year, and other such stuff

[mamajoan]

Belatedly, welcome to 2008 everyone. I must say that, unlike many of y'all on my flist, I was sorry to see 2007 go. It was good to me. A year ago today I was starting to quietly panic after more than four months on unemployment, with the money about to run out and no job prospects on the horizon. And now? I'm making more money than I would have believed, working at a great place with great people; the kids are fantastic, I'm getting some reading done, and even starting to think about maybe some writing and other "me" stuff. So what's to complain about? ;) Oh...I'll find something. ;) But still, things have been pretty darn good, is my point.

I'm sooooo far behind on updating and can't even really think about it right now. So I'll start off slow with some bullet points.

* As of today I have a new coworker named Ruth. I foresee some confusion on my part. ;)

* Isaac slept over at grandma's house last night. It was weird. Ruthie kept asking about him, and had a hard time going to sleep, possibly due to his absence, possibly for unrelated reasons. This morning when we were getting ready to leave, she kept saying "ah-goo! bama!" ("Isaac! Grandma!") and I think she thought we were going to Grandma's house to retrieve our "ah-goo." hee hee.

* Ruthie has started saying her name. It sounds like "oatie" or "oh-dee." I moved the changing table, so now she can see herself in the mirror when she's lying on it, and she will say "oh-dee!" and then "choo-choo!" because she can also see Isaac's new train calendar. (Ruthie can't say the beginning R on words that start with R, hence "oh-tee" for her name, and at dinnertime she often seems to be saying "more ass!" ("more rice!"). hee hee.)

* I started looking at digital cameras in the post-xmas sales, and after reading a million and three reviews, I think I am slowly narrowing it down to the Canon PowerShot SD 800. Mind you, this doesn't mean I'm actually going to buy it, necessarily. I'm just looking at the moment. Looking, and drooling. ;)

* Very, very soon (i.e., this month), I am going to have to start thinking about kindergarten. KINDERGARTEN!!! OMFG. I am so not ready. But there are open houses this month and enrollment begins, like, now. I have to pick a school for Isaac and try to get him enrolled in it. I have no clue how all of this works, but I know it is going to be a major source of stress (and a major topic of LJ posts) for me for the foreseeable future. You have been warned.

uh, that's enough for now; more later.

Comments

[lapenn.livejournal.com]

don't the public schools in your area offer kindergarten? And, in that case, wouldn't he just go to whatever school is local? Or does it work differently in Boston?

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Of course the public schools offer kindergarten, and of course he'll be going there. But you get to choose -- or at least, you get to indicate your top three choices when you register. And my impression is that you usually get your first or second choice. You don't have to use the school closest to you. And anyway, there are at least three schools within the same general radius of our house (though only one of those would make my commute easier -- but I'm not going to make my decision based on that, obviously ;) ).

[lapenn.livejournal.com]

ahh, okay. That makes sense :-)

I guess it's different when you live in the suburbs and everyone in your neighborhood has to go to the most local school. We didn't get all those choices you crazy city folk get :-p

[brina-is-sassy.livejournal.com]

"more ass" is the funniest thing I've read in awhile, how cute!

As for Kindergarten, WOW! Just set up interviews and make sure you find out about zoning and things like that. I don't know about there, but here if you don't live within a certain area of a school, there is paperwork to request that your child can attend another school and the amount of children they allow into each school that come from a different area is limited.

My aunt set up interviews with teachers at 4 schools. The one .6 miles from her house that provided bus service, and 3 others ranging from 5 miles to 15 miles away. The one by her house ended up being horrible so she chose one about 7 miles away and my cousin hasn't had any trouble since her first day. She loves school and she hadn't even been in preschool before it.

[mogwar.livejournal.com]

Kidlet is in private school rather than public school, and he attended the kindergarten offered by his private preschool, so we didn't really look into finding an elementary school for him until first grade. But if my brain dump from that time is at all helpful, you can read it here. It'll at least give you an idea of our experiences with exploring and applying to elementary schools here.

[jrosehale.livejournal.com]

How exciting to not have to pay for Isaac's daycare anymore! Since I'm just starting down that path, I can appreciate what a momentous month that will be!