The Plague

The black plague has descended upon our little universe. Most of the kids in Zachary's school have been or are sick, most of the kids in the neighborhood have been or are sick, and almost everyone in my house has been or is sick. It's crazy. I joked with the neighbors we should mark our doors with black X's so people will know who's sick.

It started with Zachary Friday afternoon, by Saturday morning he had a raging fever. I brought his pillows downstairs and set him up on the sick sofa and we turned golf on the TV. He napped off and on all day, but was basically a zombie. Sunday he was a little better, but still had a fever. Sunday night Evan started with the fever. I let Zachary sleep late Monday, he slept from 7:30 p.m. until 9:00 a.m. He woke up without a fever, but I kept him home from school just to fully recover. Evan woke up Monday with a raging fever. So yesterday was Evan's day to be a zombie. He slept a lot yesterday and today, so hopefully his little body is fighting off the infection. Zachary was back to his old self today and returned to school, Evan is showing marginal improvement today. Hopefully this will be over soon.

My whirlwind of productivity has screeched to a grinding halt. I started feeling the body aches last night during class. I wish I could have just stayed home, but I'm working on a new choreography for my troupe. We have several shows in October and November, so I need to teach them this new piece quickly. I was just so obviously off last night, and I hate that. I pride myself on my class preparations. I rarely teach a class that isn't fully planned, and although I did prepare for last night's classes I just couldn't execute my plans very well. I suppose I should take a cue from my kids and sleep this off.

So before I say goodnight, I wanted to relay today's 5 things Zachary did in school.

1. They worked on writing the letter "O" and the number zero. I've got worksheets on 1-8, so he must have missed 9 yesterday. The order of letter "learning" has been strange to me, but I'm sure there's a purpose. They've done A, T, I, S, L, and now O. Zachary is so fired up about practicing his letters, we work on it after school every day.

2. They didn't play on the playground today because the slides were wet. I couldn't get him to tell me where they had recess, because I used that word "recess" and then had to explain it and then we were so off topic I just moved on (mental fatigue is accompanying the physical fatigue now).

3. He worked on the computers today and he can now operate the game all by himself. Some of the other kids are just doing letter games, but he's doing word and sentence games. Love my little smarty pants!

4. Emma was in his center group and she's a Cancer like him. I just wonder how that conversation happened: "Emma, when's your birthday? Oh? You're a Cancer like me!" We've been reading about the zodiac constellations in his new space book. I wonder what Emma's parents will think about that?

5. He sat next to Emma on the bus today. She's always on green light. Her second name is not Rose. Ok, I like this information. Emma lives one street over and was in Zachary's preschool class last year. Ryan and I like her parents a lot. I asked Zachary if Emma was now his girlfriend, and he said "No, Mommy, Alex and Madison are my girlfriends!" My friend Leslie has a daughter named Emma Rose, and Zachary seems to think every Emma should be an Emma Rose.

It's getting easier to pry stuff out of him, as long as I remain patient. Mostly things pour out of his mouth as I turn off the lights at bedtime. THEN he wants to talk about his day! His stalling techniques are getting more savvy with age.

Ok, I'm crawling off to my bed to hopefully sleep off the plague.

Input Overload!

Kindergarten continues to be a wonderful experience for Zachary, Evan is thriving with so much one on one time with me, and I continue to be a whirlwind of productivity. I'm so freaking happy right now I can hardly stand myself. At times I feel a little guilty that everything is going my way, but for now I think I'll just enjoy the ride while it lasts.

So today I went to eat lunch with Zachary at school. The Kindergarten classes eat first, so it's really brunch at 10:30. Parents are encouraged to come eat lunch with their kids, so there were lots of parents there. We have the option of sitting at our own table with our kid and bringing a friend, or going outside. If you go outside you don't get to bring a friend. Zachary's best friend, Marshall, was sitting inside with his Mom so we sat with them at the class table. I'll get the hang of this next time.

So I'm sitting there, with Zachary, across from Marshall and his mother. There are three little girls to my right chatting up a storm and playing the little girl version of "made you look". That got annoying in about 3 minutes. Then there was a little girl at the table behind me that kept trying to talk to me. First she complimented everything (one at a time) that I was wearing, then when I had to admonish Zachary she got on the Mommy Train. That was annoying IMMEDIATELY. Then the aforementioned Banks, Zachary's newest friend, kept talking to me. Now he is a nice enough kid, despite my earlier concerns, but his mouth was full of half chewed food. It was a vile train wreck talking with him. But, I did pull myself together and I did enjoy being there (sort of). The whole scene was so much sensory input, however. Maybe I'm just getting old, but all the chatter and controlled chaos was so much. I am impressed with the officials and their methods of handling this, for as chaotic as it was it was still very much under control.

After school, Zachary's grandmother (Ryan's mother) picked him up from school. Zachary was so bummed he couldn't ride the bus, but he dealt with it. Joanne takes him to his piano lesson on Wednesdays, then they go for an adventure. When he got home tonight I was teaching my Pilates class, so I got home just before his bedtime. Evan was already in bed when I got home, sadly (to me). Zachary was so happy to see me, I haven't seen him since lunch this morning. He started telling me all about his day.

So here are the 5 things for today:

1. Reading is fun, but it's way to easy. He doesn't understand why his reading books are so easy. His friend Alex, a girl in 1st grade, has books that are more fun to read. Alex's mom is a good friend of mine, so I love it that they are such good friends.

2. Going over the speed bumps in the school bus is really fun. Enough said.

3. Math is fun, but he's wondering when they're going to start adding and subtracting. I'm not sure when he learned those terms, but he cracks me up when he gets all serious about school.

4. He loves loves loves playing on the monkey bars. He says he can now go across them without falling to the ground. I need to observe this myself before I report it as fact, we're planning to go to the playground tomorrow.

5. And for the jaw dropper - he was on red light today. He got on yellow yesterday for trying to cut Marshall's hair. Everyone got smarties (the candy) but him, since he was on yellow. Today he told me he loved playing on the monkey bars so much he didn't come when Mrs. D gave the special hand clap. That landed him on yellow. Then he somehow convinced Drew (a girl in his class) to give him some Smarties, which landed him on red. He wasn't all that upset about being on red, so I'm going to have to threaten pulling him from the school bus if he gets on red again. I hope that doesn't happen since it's so much more difficult for me if he doesn't ride the bus home. He loves riding the bus so much, so I think it's a good discipline threat.

Ryan is in Alabama this week working, so it's been a hard week for Zachary. I've had to get both kids ready and out the door by 7:30. THAT has been a challenge, but so far I'm doing okay. I'm going to bed around 9:30, but my new schedule is working for me. I am just giddy these days with happiness (despite the fact that Zachary's was on red today). I am now ready, showered, dressed, and makeup on by 6:30 a.m. That's just crazy!

On a totally unrelated note, I just LOVE this time of year. Just when I think I cannot stand the heat anymore, football season starts! And the US Open is on right now!! I'm such a sports fan and I just love watching tennis and football. Despite my growing up in Auburn, I've become quite the Alabama football fan. Ryan is an Alabama alum, I'm always cheering for Alabama unless they're playing Auburn. Alabama plays VA Tech Saturday night, woo hoo! And as I type Serena is playing the night match (starting second, after Federer) in New York. It's just unrelenting giddiness.