Dedicated Parent

Well, today I was informed I had become President of Papageno's school Parent Association. Lucky me. I thought it would be a good way to involve myself in the school and make the changes I want. Nothing like controlling your own destiny ... right? We will see. I have been getting a lot of "it's a hard, long and thankless job" comments. I am sure it is.

Having never done anything like this before I am a bit nervous. There are a lot of things I want to add to the school and I felt like the best way to do it was a president. I don't know what kind of parent participation there will be or how much I will be able to move my agenda forward, but, I guess here's to trying.

Re the kids. Life goes on. They both enjoy school. I have Bug's "back to school" night tomorrow. Boring! But, off I will go. I am room parent for his class, yea for me being involved. I am also the team parent for Papageno's soccer team (It doesn't really involve me doing anything). I signed Bug up for Karate, he is very excited. Papageno dropped Capoeira. He didn't like it and at the end of the day I felt he was over subscribed. If I do sign him up for another activity it is going to be a music class.

Bug pee'd in the bathtub today. He was in the bathroom while Papageno was "on the pot" and said he had to go and couldn't wait, so he pee'd in the tub. When I asked why he didn't go to the other bathroom he responded he was afraid of the black widows that live there. Thanks Papageno.

A day at the Aquarium

Today we went to The Aquarium of the Pacific. It was fun. We went a few weeks ago when Poppy was here. At that time I was under the impression we had purchased a membership. Poppy had bought us the four tickets and then I decided to upgrade the membership. Apparently the card was never processed so when we got there we were not members. After some haggling with the membership desk they let us pay the price of the upgrade and I have to bring proof of our previous entrance. It was a bit of a hassle but all in all they were pretty nice about it. We did our usual run around, the kids looking at the exhibits dragging Dan along so they could show him their favorite.

Before we left I told Papageno that we were not going to eat as soon as we get there. He has a habit of announcing he is hungry the moment we walk in. Wouldn't you know it, this time it was Dan. As we walked in he said he was hungry. Unfortunately he was the only one. So he had to wait. We ran around, starting with Papageno's pick of the spider crabs. My favorite is the Leafy Sea Dragon, but we didn't get there. Dan finally convinced us to get some food (and we convinced the kids).


On the way I mistakenly thought the scuba divers were going into one of the giant tanks. This is Bug's favorite thing about the aquarium, so of course, we had to stay. Unfortunately their projected arrival was 12:45, I asked Dan what time it was and thought he said 12:40, he in fact said 12:00. So we waited and waited. The good news was, in the process of waiting we discovered that they were giving out prizes, Papageno wanted one so we went to investigate how to enter the contest. It was a drawing contest. Now Papageno loves to draw, so the possibility of a prize was a bonus. He drew 4 pictures before we could drag him out and into the cafeteria.

While he was drawing Bug got to watch the scuba divers.

Since Papageno wasn't really that hungry we was finished early. So, were able to duck down and see the drawing for the prizes. He didn't win. Rather than get disappointed he headed straight to the drawing table and started drawing more pictures. When it came time to do the draw for the prize they rigged it for him. They said they felt persistence should count for something. He was so thrilled!!! Just to throw the whole experience into total awesomeness, they gave Bug a prize too.

Home to soccer for Papageno and nap for Bug. He did reasonably well on the soccer field. always good to hear.

All in all a pretty good day.

school's in

So it is now October. We have been in school for 3 weeks. All in all it's been pretty good. Papageno really enjoyed his first week of school. Of course as soon as you think life is settling down a wrench is thrown in. We were offered a spot in West Hollywood Elementary. I was tempted because I really hate the new campus at Gabriella (Papageno's school). Also, there has always been this small part of me that has wondered if Gabriella was a mistake and I was denying Papageno some sort of important social bonding. It's hard with the kids at Gabriella. I don't really have a way of meeting the other parents and it seems they don't do playdates and birthday parties the way we do. Other than that the school is great. Papageno is doing well and is happy.

Anyway, so after weeks of deliberating, changing my mind almost hourly we have decided to stay at Gabriella. I can always move him next year. He seems happy with that decision. I am also making more of an effort to be more involved. I am going to try and be president of the parent association.

Also, I have introduced Liza into the concept of tire planters. Hopefully that will help with "warming" up the campus in a not very expensive way. I also like the recycling angle.

Since the boys have started school the stress levels have been running a bit high. I think it is due to all of a sudden having a schedule, having to get up and out of the house and doing homework, etc. Papageno has been going a bit bonkers. I hope that things will settle down soon. Because of the lack of playdates and afterschool activities at the school I have scheduled him for a lot of our own activities. Swimming, soccer, and capoeira.
Hopefully he is not now oversubscribed.

Bug has also had a big month. Our first day at preschool did not go well. He did not want to be with Teacher Zhanna and was hysterical. She made it worse by yelling at him. I then picked him up, stalked out and complained to th e director, Ellen. I was very upset, threatened to leave, etc. In the end I realized that I wasn't really about to go looking for another school, assuming I could even get into one. We had to much history at the JCC and were too comfortable. Zhanna called and apologized and said I misunderstood her intentions. She mellowed out, I returned and it's all been good since then. I took it as a "teaching moment" moment for me. I know that throughout your childs educational history you are not going to like everything the teacher does. So it's best, and possible, to deal with it and hopefully change the bad into the good. It sounds simple but I havent always done that, so good for me!