On the last day of May, the Robot had to go. If you have been keeping up with my fashion posts at The Eagle's Nest you know about The Robot, which required the donation of a shoebox to the art class. As it turned out, LittleMan, upon learning his options, actually chose to use a boot box -- and if you know about women's shoes, or shoe storage in general, you will understand that the two are not the same. A boot box is considerably larger, and then rendered even more so with the addition of plastic-cup feet, a plastic-hanger antenna, some bottle-pump arms, and protruding eyes made of ... [READ MORE]
Life, Death, and the School Run
March 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It is 8:11am. The sun beams through the windshielf and with my right hand I'm rooting around for my sunglasses in my bottomless purse. "It's Friday, guys!" I chatter to the kids. "The weekend starts today!" "Star Wars pancakes tomorrow!" shouts LittleMan. "Dee-too-dee-too! Yay!" chimes in Babygirl, clapping. "It's R-2-D-2, Babygirl!" corrects LittleMan. He finds my eyes in the rearview mirror. "Mommy, I keep trying to correct her." The person in front of me is looking for parking and has slowed to a crawl. I switch on the left indicator to go around him, glancing quickly over my ... [READ MORE]
A 60-Day Timeline
February 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
"It's a process," the woman on the phone admitted. "But we walk you through it." I had finally reached the expert in question, the woman in charge of preschool assessments for special education services, after listening to the lengthy directory on the main line of the San Francisco Unified School District and calling three of the numbers I thought might be the right fit -- Assessment and Intervention, Special Education, and Other Assessment. I am not dealing with the City by choice. There are very good public schools in San Francisco. A few. They are spread throughout the City, not ... [READ MORE]
Change Abounds
October 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment
If I'm being honest, the first warning sign was LittleMan's midyear parent-teacher conference back in the Age 3-4 classroom (pre-Pre-K). "LittleMan! Great kid, awesome little guy, just like a little boy should be!" said his teacher. We nodded happily. The ice thus broken, she consulted her comment sheet for the nitty-gritty, and looked at us. "LittleMan..." She paused. "LittleMan...does not like art." "Oh, we know that," I assured her with a laugh and a wave of my hand. "He never really has. He doesn't have the patience for it. He'd rather be running around or doing imaginative ... [READ MORE]
Back in the Saddle Again
October 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
It was November 2009. My husband had been on something of a "bromance" kick, with three bachelor parties, two football games, three weddings of best friends...It seemed like for weeks, he was either out of town or out of pocket. Some months are like that. There was a gal at the playground. One far more outgoing than I, with a son the same age as LittleMan, and as the two boys toddled around together we got to chatting. Her husband had Giants season tickets (as in New York Giants...as in football...as in out-of-state), and she, too, was flying solo quite a bit as he traveled back and ... [READ MORE]
Finding the Center
September 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
"Mommy," LittleMan said as we walked hand-in-hand from his school building the other day, rush hour traffic swirling all around, "I am just letting you know that I am going to be quiet for a few minutes now, because I'm feeling sort of tired. Quiet means you don't talk. Then when we get where we're going, I'll feel refreshed." "That sounds nice," I agreed. "I'll be quiet for a few minutes too." So we walked, and quietly watched the world trying to get home, by foot or bus or train or car, while the Bay Bridge traffic mounted and the Giants fans plowed towards the ballpark and the 5 ... [READ MORE]
And So It Begins, Part 2 (How It Really Began)
August 15, 2012 by 1 Comment
Babyman started his new Pre-K the first Monday after our two-week family vacation in Tahoe. Babyman is not fond of change or shake-ups to his routine. He is, however, tremendously fond of family vacations in Tahoe. It follows that shaking up his routine just as our Tahoe vacation came to an end was something less than popular. We dedicated the ride home to hyper-enthusiastic Pre-K prep as only nervous parents can. We stopped along the way to get a back-to-school outfit and, most importantly, a snazzy Cars 2 lunchbox. The lunchbox, its utter coolness, its "I can't wait to show the ... [READ MORE]
