Last Days

Today is E's last day of Pre-K, and tomorrow is M's last day of second grade. Everyone knows how glad I am to see summer break arrive so that we can stay home more and not have Baby C in the car so much. But I still feel a little sad about the end of the school year.

E has thrived in this class. Her last preschool was in a special ed setting, so that she would get the help she needed for her speech delay. However, she was more developed socially and emotionally than her classmates at that time, since the class was made up of children from 2.5 to 4 years with a range of abilities and varying special needs. She was a leader in that class (which may have given her an inflated sense of responsibility, eh?), but didn't have any close friends.

Moving to the Pre-K class at her sister's school was a big change. The curriculum was more challenging, and she was interacting with her peers. Her speech and language issues have all but disappeared (I can still tell where they reside but others have said they can't)--we haven't even renewed her IEP. Her talents have flourished and she is just about ready for kindergarten at this school. I say "just about" because our school runs the curriculum about a year ahead of other schools. E is expected to know a lot going into kindergarten, and we will work on some materials over the summer to keep it "fresh." She has made many friends and grown very attached to her teachers. It will probably be a shock to go to a different classroom and get to know a different teacher next year. She still refers to her school as her "new school" because this year was a change for her. Maybe when she returns it will sink in that it is no longer "new" to her!

As for moving to third grade, M is both nervous and excited. She wants to be in the same class as her best friend, but she never told me which teacher her friend requested. M talks a lot about third grade, but also said she wants to stay in second. She has had a good year, even though this teacher gave us some headaches. I am so proud of her development. Last year I thought she would never "get" math. Just recently, it has been really clicking for her. She can now do three-digit addition and subtraction in her head and is working on multiplication and division. It is starting to test my own abilities to help her with this math! Pretty soon she will be on algebra and then I will tell her to ask her father for homework help.

She is also a very creative writer. I wonder where she gets it. LOL. I recently showed her a short story that I wrote in second grade. She was amazed... that I was ever in second grade. Too funny.

Her future aspirations have changed from pilot to artist. She loves art class and has asked to join the afterschool art program next year. She also loves sports and particularly soccer. It's the favorite sport of my father-in-law, so I know he will be happy to see her play. Daddy will have to wait for C to have a kid in tee-ball.

So now that we are getting ready for summer, we have so many memories to enjoy of this school year. Bring on the laziness!

Cow's milk...

... is still not my friend.

My very nice Mother's Day ended on a sour note. A sour stomach, to be more specific.

My girls wanted to make Chocolate Truffles out of the "Shrek" cookbook (yes, it does exist--and some of the recipes are appropriately ogre-rific). Ingredients: dark chocolate, heavy cream, cocoa powder. Even though I knew better, I had to taste the mixture to make sure it was coming out right. What a MISTAKE.

I had been wondering if I should test my dairy tolerance now that I'm not pregnant anymore, which is when I am most sensitive. Well, the symptoms of my continued intolerance are very similar to food poisoning. The baby didn't appreciate me being up all night in the bathroom, especially when he wanted to eat!

Soooo, my friends, if you ever see me putting anything containing dairy products near my mouth, PLEASE STOP ME. Remind me about the truffles. That should do it.