Friday night before Easter about 10 kids from the street were out on their bikes. Four of those kids had just gotten new bikes since seeing Luc out on his all the time now. This gave Frederic and I a chance to talk with some parents whose kids go to the local elementary school. Our county is ranked quite well for public schools, but even within the county you have not-the-best schools. And of course our house is zoned for one of those. This has made us a little nervous. Obviously you want your kids to have the best education. We are already thinking about when Aria is done with preschool what we'll do. We're keeping Luc in the private school with Aria until she's done, then we have to decide if want to pay for both kids to stay where they are, or move them into public school near home. The neighbors have reassured us that the elementary school is good, the teachers are young and attentive, there are lots of activities and involvement opportunities. It's not as bad as we think it is. And if nothing else, it still beats higher than other counties in the state. So that was a sigh of relief.
Saturday was another packed day and Luc's friend from school, Kira, came over with her bike that afternoon. She'll be in the Philippines with her family for 6 weeks, so we planned a play date before she left. But the kids were having so much fun (the neighbors came out again), that we didn't go inside until almost 8pm and she didn't go home until 9:30pm. The kids kept going, but Aria hasn't been sleeping well in general this past week (up 2-3 times a night), and Luc was still up at 7am on Sunday.
I'm so glad I took a video of the kids opening their Easter baskets because I was sad I didn't on Christmas with their stockings. Luc was so ecstatic and Aria was very funny. After a long bike ride since it was gorgeous outside, and Aria took a nap, we headed to my parent's house for Easter. The kids were too energetic the whole day. And then hopped up on sugar from dessert. And note to self, don't let Aria have so much dessert (or spray Whipped Cream right into her mouth- yes, I did) and then put her in the car less than an hour later. She complained of her belly hurting the whole way home and I thought for sure she was going to be sick in the car.
Other Updates:
*Aria can count to 10 (playing hide and seek has paid off).*We're finding that giving Luc 10 pennies (or a few dimes) in the morning and telling him he'll loose one every time he does something he's not supposed to, doesn't listen, or teases his sister, is a great way to improve his behavior. All you have to say is "Penny!" and he catches himself and stops. If does get a coin taken away, we tell him he can do something genuinely nice to get it back.
*We started Luc on allergy shots a few weeks ago. Tuesdays are now long and tiring. After a day of work, I pick up the kids, jump right back in the car, and drive past home to the doctor's office. Luc gets his shot and we sit in the office for 30 minutes before heading home. Then I rush to feed him and Aria dinner because they're tired and cranky and on the verge of a meltdown.
Luc is a real trooper. The nurses told me he's the youngest in the practice getting allergy shots. And each time they try to distract him when they're about to give him the shot, but he looks right at his arm and barely flinches when the needle goes in. Then he runs back to the toy corner in the waiting room. The nurses are so impressed that he handles the shot a million times better than teens and some adults.
We're really hoping by the end of the allergy shot course (5 years later!) that he won't be allergic and can have a less worried life wondering if something will trigger an asthma attack while he's visiting some place new and unknown.
