In the summer at Molly’s school, the classes walk over to the Goodman Pool and have a swimming lesson. They ask parents to volunteer to come with them because, as we learned today, it’s a bit of a chaotic process. Very un-Montessori. And super fun and impressive. The best part for me, though, was how excited she was to have us there. I know this probably sounds dumb, but I really wasn’t expecting that. She wanted me to be her partner on the walk there and back! And even though she generally refuses to hold my hand, she willingly held on tight the whole way. It was dreamy. It made me feel like the most important person on the planet. [And side note: holy cow is that pool nice!] Anyway, while the whole ordeal – getting the kids to the pool, in the pool, out of the pool, changed, back to school – took about one hundred hours for an under-thirty-minute lesson, I pretty much loved every minute of it. Happy summer!
Archive Page 28
Molly and I went to Milwaukee for the third and part of the fourth of July. She had her first experience with sparklers and fireworks. She loved both.
![IMG_0757[1]](https://lifeandpuppies.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/img_07571.jpg)
![IMG_0764[1]](https://lifeandpuppies.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/img_07641.jpg)
![IMG_0740[1]](https://lifeandpuppies.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/img_07401.jpg)
![IMG_0775[1]](https://lifeandpuppies.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/img_07751.jpg)
Against my better judgment, and all odds, I let Mollybear stay up for the amazing fireworks on the Milwaukee lakefront on Friday. I actually can’t believe she made it up that late. A constellation of factors worked in her favor, namely a late afternoon nap. But Aaron and I certainly paid the price over the following days with a very cranky tot. Oh well. She loved the fireworks and, really, the whole day. As she said, “Best day ever!”
One of several sad-looking patches in our backyard. And my shadow.![IMG_0716[1]](https://lifeandpuppies.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/img_07161.jpg)
And then Molly doing something.
![IMG_0718[1]](https://lifeandpuppies.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/img_07181.jpg)
And a little bit of color. I’m hoping they last the week.
![IMG_0719[1]](https://lifeandpuppies.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/img_07191.jpg)
We’ve been in our little gem of a money pit on the busiest street in America for a little over a year now, so I think it’s time to post a list of things that we’ve done or had done to the house so that I can feel a sense of accomplishment (instead of my too-common feeling of will-we-ever-get-anything-done-on-this-house-before-we-send-Molly-off-to-college). These are just things that would stay with the house if we moved, not decor-type things. Here goes (and in no particular order):
- Driveway partially repaved
- Fence completed
- Sump pump installed
- Trim painted
- All rooms painted nicely (thanks AO), except the guest room and the sewing room
- Blinds installed (except in a few rooms)
- 4 garden boxes made (thanks AO)
- AC fixed
- One medicine cabinet added to the master bath
- Leaky bathroom fan fixed
Hmm. What else? I honestly thought there was more. Although many of those things — ahem, sump pump — were an awful lot of money. Here are the things we still want to do (because I apparently want to overwhelm myself this afternoon):
- Landscaping
- Tree removal
- Kitchen remodel
- Paint the fireplace, retile the floor around it and install a mantel
- Make the attic space an inviting play room
- Redo all of the top light fixtures (they’re total ew!)
- Expand the master bath
- Paint the sewing and guest rooms
- Clean out and prett-ify the porch
- Repave rest of driveway
- Rip out deck, put in slab and have screen porch built
- Possibly restain the floors
Not too bad, right?
I’m not so good with change. Since about February, I’ve been wrestling with the knowledge that Bear will switch classrooms next week and I haven’t handled the news all that well. In September, when she started in her current classroom, she was supposed to stay there, with all of her pals, until the end of August. But they decided to change that because, they said, all of the kids were ready for preschool. Deep sigh. I was ok with that, I guess, but I wasn’t really ok with the idea that she is being split from her bestie and instead being placed in a classroom with her mortal enemy (too strong?). You see, in Montessori schools, or at least in ours, part of the emphasis in preschool and school-aged kids is on mixed-aged classrooms. The idea is that the little ones learn from the bigger kids and that all of us really learn best by teaching others, so the big ones learn from helping their littler friends. While I love this idea in theory, recently it’s hit me how scary this is for me. Bear will now be with kids ages three to six and she will be one of the youngest. And her best pal will be in the classroom next door. She happily announces to me, “I’m going to Classroom Two!” all the time, and I now know (or think I know) that she understands what this means because she has visited the new classroom several times. But I’m unsure that she understands at all how her day will be different. The summer will be, I suppose, a nice transition because the classrooms will be smaller and all of the kids will be in the outdoor space together. But still. It’s a big change. She loves her friend so much and in a way that I think is rather rare for three-year-olds. I don’t think they stifle each other, but instead encourage each other to try new things and grow. And really, they’re just so sweet together. I will miss seeing that. It’s been such a lovely part of my day. It’s something I didn’t really anticipate as part of parenthood: seeing your kid love another kid. It’s really neat.
![IMG_0706[1]](https://lifeandpuppies.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/img_07061.jpg)
So maybe I’m just being selfish, but I keep hoping that something will change. That someone will tell me that they’ve decided to keep the girls together afterall. I know I just need to pull myself together and recognize it’s going to be ok. That she’ll be ok. But still. Why can’t good things just stay exactly as they are? Why is the one constant change? It’s so annoying.
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