A Sudden Reprieve...

So today would have been Henry's first day of school! He was supposed to go to WCSA (Watsonville Charter School for the Arts) We went to the "Back to School Picnic", filled out his emergency card, even met his "new" Kinder teacher Miss Monohan.

But, no. Things have suddently changed. Yesterday morning, out of the blue, I get a call from Linscott Elementary.

For those of you who don't know, Linscott is one of the best public schools in the county. Someone said to me it's like a private school where you don't have to pay. Linscott was Matt and my first choice for Henry. Unfortunately Linscott was the first choice for at least 50 other pairs of parents! And even worse, siblings get priority and everyone couldn't help but point out that this was an "unusually heavy year for siblings". This meant that there were even less than the normal handful of spots for incoming kids like Henry. Matt and I signed Henry up for consideration, kept our fingers crossed, and pursued other options. Of course, the lottery for incoming kids came and Henry was not chosen. We then proceeded to get Henry into WCSA.

Then I get the call yesterday that lo and behold there's an opening. Long story short we jumped on it and Henry is now going to Linscott. I say he's got a "Sudden Reprieve" because Linscott doesn't actually start school till Auguast 29th! (For those of you interested) click here for a calendar.Even though this means Henry gets to enjoy a bit more vacation, it doesn't mean the same for me. If you peeked at the calendar you may have noticed School Clean-up Days.

One of the things that make Linscott unique is that they require a specific number of hours of parent participation. This has proven to not only help your child be a better learner but has also helped to create a closer school community. They require from us parents the following:

• One session in each childs classroom per week.


• One monthly 2 hour parent meeting per month per child


• Four hours of work per year on scheduled clean up days


• One classroom or school-wide suppport job or one school-wide committee per family or the equivalent per year


• Participation in one school-wide fundraiser per year.

Heh...it didn't seem like alot when we were trying to get him in... :P

Anyway, if you peeked at the calendar, you will see that the first scheduled "clean-up days" are this Saturday and Monday. I guess I'll have to roll up my sleeves this weekend! I've also met with Henry's teacher and I've signed up for a support job already. I am the official Kinder Classroom Photographer. It was either that or Snack Scheduler (aka snack lady).

Anyway, that's it for now...till later!

Swimming into the Fall...

Sorry I haven't had the chance to let everyone know what's going on lately. It's just been so busy!. Henry had his last day of swimming on Friday. Unfortunately, no actual swimming occured! First off, I and another mother (Maria), decided to plan a surprise "thank you" to all the kids who spent their summer teaching our kids how to swim. I wrote out a short note and Maria translated it asking for donations. We planned on getting pizza and cake for the kids. Parents were really generous! I expected 2 maybe 3 bucks a kid and some parents actually gave me 10s! I even got a 20 or two!! On Thursday I gave Maria the money to get the cake and I would get the pizzas. I would leave Henry at the pool and Maria would watch him while I get the pizzas.

Friday comes along, and right off the bat, I see something is wrong. I find parking really really close and people (including some of the instructors) were just milling around outside the pool gate. Henry and I get out of the car and I notice people are leaving . One of the parents heading back to their car asks me if we are still going to have pizza and I say, "I think so..why?" And as they are heading back they tell me, "because swimming is cancelled."

Sure enough the head instructors tell me that swimming is indeed cancelled because...someone in the class before threw up in the pool!

Threw up on our plans is more like!! Anyway, to make a long story short, I decided the instructors deserved their pizza (I had already ordered it ahead of time - 8 large pizzas). So we did indeed have cake and pizza! Luckily (sort of) the instructors had to be there the required time, so, they got their well deserved reward. A few parents and their kids stayed behind to share the food but, nothing like we had planned for.

In the end, I was glad that we got to give these great kids a nice "thank you" I just wish everyone was there. I felt bad having received such generous donations and not having those who gave actually be their to receive the thank yous. The instructors were really surpised. They so deserved it though. Henry had a great time swimming. He learned a whole lot!!

I can't believe Fall is already here. It sort of just took over. Henry is going to school so soon! I hope I don't cry!

Happy Idiot Driving Day & the Busy Birthday Weekend!

The summer is almost over and we had a busy busy weekend! Before I go into the details, I have to relate a funny Henry story. On Thursday, on the way to swimming, with Henry in the back seat, I was cut off in traffic a few times. I said in exasperation, "Must be idiot driving day!"

Then on Friday, my sister took a long lunch and we went to look at flooring. Both the boys were in the car. I was stopped at a stop sign and it was my turn to go. Not one but two cars went right through the stop sign. "Must still be idiot driving day,"I said. Then we were in the store. The boys were pretty good - no running around or knocking things over. As we were leaving, the lady behind the counter thanked us and said, "Have a nice day!" Henry with one foot out the door stuck his hand up in a cheerful wave and yelled, "Happy Idiot Driving Day!. I shuffled him out the door during mid-sentence so it was worse because they probably just heard, "Happy Idiot..." Charlotte was laughing till she was almost crying in the car. I was mortified at first but, then I realized how funny it was. I should have known Henry would pick up on it. Poor kid thought it was actually Idiot Driving Day! I really must watch what I say...

On Friday we joined Lilly, Mary & Cindy at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalkand we sawSly & The Family Stone Experience! They were fun. The kids had a great time dancing to the music.

On Saturday, Sam turned two! He got this great Disney ride along bubble machine from Grandma and Grandad (it was in the big big box). We didn't want bubbles in the house, so we didn't put the bubbles in. But, Sam loved it all the same.

After presents, we had cake with Thomas The Tank Engine on it. Sam was so cute trying to blow the candles. He loved his cake. It was chocolate with chocolate fudge filling. Yum!

On Sunday, we went to see Thomas at Roaring Camp. Sammy had a wonderful time. He kept pointing at Thomas and saying, "Thomas" as we waited for the ride. We got to sit in the car right behind the famous Blue Tank Engine.

The boys also got Thomas tatoos and face painting. Sam actually sat still most of the time while his face was getting painted. I'm kinda dreading bath night because there will be tears when the Thomas Tatoo comes off! There was also a bouncy house, which was an obvious highlight of the whole trip - the boys went on 3 times! They also had a Thomas made out of Legos which the boys loved climbing on. Sam kept saying, "Lego Thomas, Lego Thomas..."

We also took pictures with Sir Topham Hat and in front of Thomas. Unfortunately, Sam is not a ham (like his brother)so it took a lot of yelling to get him to even look at the camera. Our little guy does smile all the time, honestly.

Fever.

So, Sam woke up with a fever this morning. He was warm last night but, not so warm that I wanted to wake him and put medicine down him. But, this morning he was warmer. So Matt and I gave him some Motrin. We are supposed to meet Lilly in the park but, I'm inclined to cancel. I really don't want him to be sick on his birthday, Saturday. Especially since we are seeing Thomas the Tank Engine on Sunday.

Even though, they aren't supposed to be bad, fevers always worry me. I know fevers are a symptom and that they don't necessarily hurt the child, but I'm still not crazy about them. When Henry is sick, he's so different. He's so quiet and listless and sleepy. He's a good patient though. He knows to just go to sleep and let his immune system do the fight. Sam's a bit more restless. He's got those fever eyes right now. Poor thing. I don't like my kids being sick. It makes me feel helpless...

What could it be?

Got this Large package from Amazon.com yesterday. It's addressed to "Master Sam Covington". As you can see, Sam already enjoys just sitting on the big box. He doesn't have any real clue that it's for him. Although, he now knows when I ask him,"How old are you going to be?" He says, "two!" So cute. I'm a little anxious what could be in there. Mum called on Sunday and told us to expect a package for little S's b-day. She chuckled slyly and said something about us not being "too happy" with it...hmm...

"You might wake up the sky"

We Survived Camping! Barely. Thanks to yours truly -- the whole trip would have been a wash. You see, after we set up camp on Sunday, the original plan was for me to go out and get pizza because Matt would be too tired to do anything else. The campsite is only about 10 minutes away from Target and Roundtable Pizza and about 12 minutes away from home. As expected, there were a few things that we needed and or forgot to take with us so, I was to go home get some things, go to Target buy some things, then go to Roundtable and get dinner. When I got to Target, I managed to lock my keys in the car! This lead an errand that was supposed to last 1/2 an hour tops into a 2 hour ordeal!! Matt was at the campsite with the kids. It was cold there and they had no food (the cooler was in the car). All I have to say is, thank God for cell phones and the fact that Matt was in the Boy Scouts (or it's U.K. equivalent.)

I managed to track down my sisters, who were 1/2 an hour away in Gilroy. They picked me up, we went back to the house, picked up the spare key that Charlotte had, and I finished getting food and went back to camp. The boys hadn't killed each other, but, it was getting close. Matt managed to make fire without the firestarter (one of the things I was supposed to get) and Sam managed to bite Henry just once (out of boredom and fighting over the gameboy.) Yes, Sam bit Henry. It was a nip on the finger. Oh, the terrible twos. Matt was actually quite patient with the whole situation. But, he won't let me forget this. Believe me. Slap that Scarlet "S" on me! S for stupid.

The rest of the trip went pretty smoothly. I just wish it was warmer. It's that darn Marine Layer! It's the middle of July but, it was still too cold. Being near the beach didn't help either. The thing is I (the native Californian) was really the only one who had trouble with this. The boys truly enjoyed themselves despite the chill. Sam was in his element. He was at least 2 shades darker from the dirt, but he loved it. He and Henry just ran around and played among the trees and on the beach.

Henry got to stay up with his dad and bond by the fire. Matt told me that he had the flashlight and was shining it up into the trees when Henry said, "Don't shine it up there, you might wake up the sky." It was nice to getaway, even if it was just for a few days.

Now it's back to the daily grind. Not to mention Laundry. All the endless laundry...

Need Noise?

Here's a scrapbook page, I just finished. I scrapbook almost every day. It's a real addiction for me.

Almost Friday. Things have been humming along. The weather is really nice. Henry's been swimming. He's really getting along there. Sam is talking more and more. He's definately going through those terrible twos though. We are planning on going on our first camping trip on Sunday to Sunset State Beach. I have to make up lists. We'll probably start packing on Saturday. Check in time is 2p.m. on Sunday. Wish us luck!

Took the kids to Jose Ave Park yesterday. We had a good time. There was this nice young woman from Barrios Unidos who offered free lunches to the kids. Apparently for the summer, they can have a free luch every Weds. in the park. Mary and I were impressed. Usually, there is a parent group there, who never acknowledges us or introduces themselves.

Seen any good DVDs lately?? I Finally got a chance to see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and House of Flying Daggers. I liked them both but, also not as much as some other Wes Anderson or Yimou Zhang movies. For both of them, I felt the pacing was a bit off. But, I liked them. Thank goodness for Netflix! You pay one monthly price for rental and you keep the movie as long as you want. Seriously no extra fees, no "restocking" charges that Blockbuster try and sneak by you...

Aside from the camping this weekend, we will probably take the kids to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Sam loves the squirrels on the preview. We watched a special on MTV about the movie and Sam wanted me to rewind the part with the squirrels over and over again (we have a DVR on our sattelite). Apparently, Tim Burton hired real trained squirrels and the chocolate river was made of a kind of base used for baked beans. Tasty.

Oh before I forget, I wanted to let everyone know that if you have the t.v. channel Noggin you might catch a glimpse of our friends Eric and Christina's kids Alaric and Gwyndolyn in a music video on rotation there. It's for a song called Farm Animal Friends by a group called "Gwendolyn and The Goodtime Gang". Alaric is in chaps, blue denim and a Clint Eastwood cowboy hat and Gwyndolyn is in a maroon cowgirl dress complete with pigtails. The song is pretty catchy. Although, I never imagined our Eric (Mr. Bloody Valentine) telling us to watch a band with the words "Goodtime Gang" in the title. :) I understand the whole proud parent thing though. If my kids were in a video for something like Kelpo and the Seaweed gang I'd be all over it too! Have a good weekend! Janet out.

Sad.

This is horrible. Sad. At least 40 dead. Hundreds injured. I remember a long time ago, way before 9/11, being in London and thinking about why there were no garbage cans in the "Tube" and realizing it was because of terrorists. My heart goes out to those in London and the U.K. right now...

Those who do, Teach.

Nostalgia Alert!! Actually the quote at the title isn't for Bev (who we saw yesterday), it's for our dear friend Brandon. Here's a picture of him 10 years (!) ago when he was still "The Cisco Kid."

I'm happy to report that our Brandon, who has been working hard getting his teaching credentials, has found a job teaching! He'll be working for Mary B. Lewis Elementary. It's a year round school and he'll be teaching 6th grade. Yes, I said 6th grade. He'll be teaching antzy 11 and 12 year old tweens. The Hillary Duff set. God speed Cisco Kid, God speeed.

Capitola Mall

Got to hook up with our friend Beverly on Tuesday. We met up at the Capitola Mall for lunch. Of course, this is the one time I don't go to the Mall with the backpack full of extra clothes for the boys. And of course, Sam gets too excited, overstuffs his face and promptly throws-up his lunch in the food court. Did I mention that Bev is 4 1/2 months pregnant? Luckily, she is also a first grade teacher, so despite the fact that I'm sure watching Sam toss his cookies made her lose her appetite, she was a really trooper about it. In fact, she was incredibly helpful. She got napkins and watched after Henry while I gave Sam an impromptu bath in the Mall bathroom sink. She's going to be a great mom. I'm really glad for her and her husband Wes.

And don't worry about our wee Sam. I found some extra clothes in the car. He and Henry played a little more and when we got home, he actually ate the rest of his lunch that I managed to salvage and bring home.

Action is the star.

We had a fairly good weekend here. Matts company, Allume just got bought by a company called Smith Micro. You can read about it here: Smith Micro acquires Allume.

Matt is optimistic about it, which is good. Of course, since he's director of Product Management and he's in charge of the most profitable product, the acquisition meant some real PR work on his part. So, long story short, he was not at Family Swim on Friday. I know he really wanted to be there. There will be other FS days though, so it was no real loss. Anyway, Henry and I got in the pool together on Friday (my sisters watched Sammy) and he and I had some quality bonding time. It was fun.

For the rest of the weekend Matt and I managed to get out and catch a couple of the latest movies out right now. Friday night we got to see Batman Begins. We both thought it was really good. Matt thought it was the best of all the Batman movies but, that he couldn't stop seeing Christian Bale as the little kid from Empire of the Sun. With me, seeing all that hunky muscle, there no way I was getting him mixed up with a little boy. :)

The second movie we saw was on Saturday afternoon, War of The Worlds. We both liked it but, my sister and I had a real problem with the ending. Although, I wouldn't necessarily agree with Roger Eberts Review. He was being a bit too harsh on the aliens and the whole darn invasion. Matt thinks he's "politically motivated" - with all the recent Cruise hoopla going on, it makes me wonder...I'm curious to know what others think about this. So if you've seen the movie let me know.

As for Fourth of July we joined the rest of our pyromaniac neighbors and proceeded to litter the street with Fireworks. Our fireworks were small compared to some of our neighbors who obviously didn't get their fireworks from the local school or the Youth Soccer League. Some of the fireworks rivaled the shows people pay for! What a spectacle. Henry ran around and yelled the whole time. He and Liam, one of our neighbor's kids threw those little balled up explosive things that pop when they hit the ground. While Sammy and Callum (Liam's little brother) just stared stunned. Every once in a while Sam would say "cool" but, for the most part he just stared.

All in all we had a good weekend. It's going to be a short but, busy week. See you later.

Reading.

I'm proud of myself! I just added to this blog a spot on the sidebar where you can see what we are reading. Because this blog is free, it doesn't have much in terms of fancy plug ins. I want my blog to look like the ones in typepad so I basically copied and pasted HTML stuff from another blog. This is not hard but, time consuming. I'm sure there's an easier way and if you know I'd love for you to tell me. Well, I think it's looks pretty good.

Anyway, you can check out what we're reading right now. If you know us, you can pretty much guess who is reading what on that list. Laters. :)

TGIF

"Thank God it's Friday." This term doesn't really mean much to me because I'm not working full time or rather because I am working full time. It all depends on your definition of "work". I think other Stay at Homes understand what I mean. I used to work from 8:00 - 4:30 and then look forward to the weekend at home. But, when you are at home all the time, there really isn't a sort of end to the week.

When Matt comes home on Friday he expects to be able to take things easy. He's worked hard all week. Me, I have spurts. Because I'm at home, I can "work" at cleaning, laundry, the kids, etc. and then occasionally veg in front of the t.v. or read or blog. My relaxation is in bits not in consecutive days.

Actually, as a mom, everything is in spurts - eating in spurts, talking in spurts, cleaning up the spurts... Being a mom is not easy. When I go back to work, I'm not sure how I'm going to cope with all this. (Because the mommy duties continue, as any working Mom can attest to too.)

Anyway, because it's going to be a 3 day weekend (for most), hopefully Matt will be home early. Today is the last day of Session 1 for Henry's swimming. Today is Family Swim day so the parents and rest of the family can hop in the pool too. Hopefully, Matt will be able to come and we can all splash around a bit this afternoon. Anyway, have a great weekend!

Perspectives...

I am 33 and I am still learning. There are two things I learned yesterday

1. Always bring your camera - These are the boys formative years. Hello. I should know better. Anyway, at Blue Ball Park yesterday, Henry went across the monkey bars all by himself ! He started and stopped a few times but, eventually he got it. He'd never done this before. It was amazing to watch. I was so proud of him. And the camera was sitting in the kitchen. Just wonderful (sarcastic).

2. Be an Aggressive Parent - Well maybe agressive is a little harsh choice of words. Proactive. I'm going to use a cheesy corporate buzz word - proactive. I need to be more proactive. Parenting involves knowledge, involves awareness, and(in more corporate terms again) thinking outside the box..

Anyway, Henry has been in Beginning Swimming throughWatsonville Parks and Rec. My boy is a fish. He loves it. His class is full. There are 4 teachers and 12 students. However two of the students cried like they were possessed by demons the first day of class, and for some reason, this entitles them into getting one on one attention. They have an instructor with them the entire time . One of the boys (according to his mother) has a pool at home and "doesn't seem to have a problem there". ( Insert shrug shrug). I hold my tounge. It's not my business. Although, it makes me question why 2 of the instructors now have 5 kids they have to watch instead of 3 and it makes me frustrated because Henry has to wait longer to do his excersise with an available instructor, slowing down his learning.

But, that wasn't what has given me the splitting headache this morning. On the brochure that we got in the beginning of summer, it states in bold that prior registration is required (duh) and that you can register the Friday before your session begins. So I have been sitting here eagerly waiting for the Friday before Session 2 to properly register Henry in the next class. Yesterday during class, one of the moms told me that when she called at the beginning of summer, to register her daughter, the person on the phone offerend to enroll her for the entire summer. I called this morning and lo and behold the next session was full. I nearly cried on the phone. No one had told me I could sign Henry up the entire summer. I was following what the brochure said. I was following the rules.

Luckily, there were spaces for him in the rest of the sessions (3 & 4) at the same time 5:15 p.m. - 5:55 p.m. Because, I'm not going to let my boy miss swimming - I signed up for the only space available in Session 2 from 9:55 - 10:35 in the morning starting next Tuesday. At our regular time, Jonie is usually done with work so she can watch Sam while Henry and I go to the session. This means I will have to take Sam with me. Sam will do his best to join his brother in the pool. I will be doing my best to chase after, restrain, and distract him for 55 minutes. Wish me luck. It will be worth it though, to see the happy look on Henry's face.

This morning, Matt told me, and he's right, that I needed to look at this all from a different perspective. If that mom hadn't told me what she did yesterday, I may not have ever known and I Henry might have missed out on Swimming completely for the rest of the summer. I should be glad I found this program in the first place. The instructors are really good and Henry is loving every minute of it. And I should be glad that my sister is around to take care of Sam for the sessions we did get at 5:15.

We are still a lucky family. We are still having a great summer. I need to remember that and enjoy it.

Where Does the Time go??

Can you believe it's the end of June already?? Summer is halfway over! I find that as I have gotten older the days have gotten shorter. I sleep less than I did when I was young, or single, or without children. Matt never used to sleep much, so he's kinda used to it. I readily admit I kinda envy the kids for being able to sleep 10+ hours each night. Back when Matt and I were without H&S we used to sleep in on weekends, get up whenever, and if there was time, go to brunch. I miss brunch. I suppose we could take the kids out to breakfast but, then I'd have to dress them, put them in the car, distract them while we wait for a table, bring snacks (because the food takes a while to come out) and then I wouldn't eat anyway because I'd be running around after them because they aren't hungry now (or ever really). The experience isn't the same anymore. Anyway, even with less sleep - the days seem shorter. That's something they just don't teach you in school.

Today we are going on our regular Lilly playdate. We are going to meet Lilly and Mary at Blue Ball Park today or as Henry calls it "Blueberry Park." Sam has pretty much mastered using the stairs, even though I haven't mastered watching him going up and down them. So, I'll probably follow him and then help him go down the super slide there about 50 times. You can't see the slide from the picture of the website but, trust me, it's huge. This is a fun park though. Large enough for the kids to have a really good time but, not so large that I could lose one of them in my sights.

Yadda Yadda Yadda

O.k. It's here. My first blog. I have plunged into the deep end - and I don't swim well. I have abandoned my scribble but, kept in the incessent babbling. As a final farewell I have taken a picture of this blog's ancestors.

Anyway the real reason I'm doing this is because as my friend Cindy says I'm "uber-trendy" and I wanted my friends and family near and far to be able to catch up and get an idea of what's going on with the daily drama-dy of the Covington family. So, thanks for checking in! :)