This week was Carter's parent-teacher conference, so I figured it was about time for a general update on how we're progressing so far this school year.
Carter's parent-teacher conference went well. As you'll recall, this is the teacher that saved parent-teacher conferences for us five years ago. After Jacob's Kindergarten one traumatized us, hearing his first grade teacher gush over how much she loved him warmed our hearts. She similarly gushed about Carter and told us the cutest story about how he noticed something in one book in a series he's reading that made a reference to another book in the series, and how he was desperate to tell her about it. She said that he's not very talkative with in-class activities, which is opposite the kid we know at home most of the time, but when he gets excited about something, you can't get him to quit talking about it! That sounded a lot more like it! He's a bit behind on his reading level, but his teacher said reading is the one thing that gets him excited--which was also surprising since he doesn't seem to be a big fan at home. She's not worried and said that his usual issues are normal for first graders. We've known it's a struggle for him, though, so it's definitely something to work on. On the bright side, they started a new reading program this year and there are a lot of resources to help him move up to the next level. I'm thankful for that, and that he seems to have some enthusiasm for it. His teacher is pleased, so I guess that's good.
He still insists he doesn't have many friends at school, but I'm thinking he's probably fine. I was annoyed to see four of his soccer teammates in the next classroom over, because any of them might have helped supplement the twin siblings who were pretty much the only carryovers from his last class. He did, however, have a playdate last weekend with his little buddy Elias, who was his daycare buddy for the last couple summers. They did that while I was on my adventure with Mary, and while it went well, apparently the boys hid when Craig came to get Carter and it got a bit crazy. I guess this is something Elias has done before, and we know Carter loves to hide when we pick him up some days. They were so good and so quiet that it took a long time to find them. Elias' parents were pretty ticked! It sounded like things cooled off after, though I still apologized to his mom via text. She seemed fine, though. His birthday party is next weekend, so hopefully that goes better.
We're still a bit concerned with his affection for screens, though, and when I found the tablet in his school bag the other morning, that led to a pretty quick banning of it. It's made for an interesting weekend without much technology at all, but he's surviving! It's amazing how creative he can get when he has to. Messy creativity, mind you, but creativity nonetheless.
As for Jacob, he's doing okay. He has a lot of complaints, but he honestly seems to be doing fine. He doesn't seem to have a lot in common with his classmates so far, which is hard for him. It's a very small class, so it's a change for him to have so few kids to choose from. A lot of them attended Catholic school together previously, and apparently those friend groups are hard to crack. It doesn't help that he's pretty particular and looking for a certain type of personality to befriend, but some of what he's shared about them makes it clear it's an odd group. He does have some friends within his house in other grades, which helps. He could get some additional kids in his class over the next few years, too, since most senior classes seem to finish off with a lot more kids than the 15 or so that they have now. Hopefully modified sports will make that easier next year also--assuming there is a next year. He spends a lot of time talking about his old friends and what they're experiencing in public school, and there are times I think he'd rather be there--even if his best friends wouldn't be in the same school anyway. Given how much we're paying for this, I suppose it wouldn't be the worst thing if he switched, but that would make this year's tuition sort of a waste and we really do like a lot about the experience he could have there in the long run. Academically he's doing pretty well, all things considered. I think the middle school demands have been an adjustment, but he's managing just fine. All of his grades so far are in the 90s--a few in the low 90s and a few in the upper 90s. We're pleased with that, for sure. I'm not sure if he's just smart or if their expectations are lower than what was happening in public school, but I take comfort from their 100% college acceptance rate. Could be a lot worse, that's for sure, and hopefully he'll stick with it, but we're keeping an eye out to make sure none of his frustrations get to be too much.
As for me, I'm hanging in there. The early mornings are still a bit of a struggle. I'm probably doing better than I expected, but there is still this feeling I get when my alarm goes off that I can only describe as utter disbelief. When it happens at 5:55am, it always feels like it's still the middle of the night. No matter when I go to bed, no matter how well I sleep, it always feels like it's still 3am when it happens. Oddly, there's less of the complete exhaustion feeling that I used to have waking up at 6:30, but I think some of that is just being more responsible with my bedtime. I'm struggling a bit more with that lately--though I can't tell if that's a symptom of being busy, or maybe it's because our evenings haven't been quite as busy as they were for a while and therefore I'm a little less structured. Craig and I are struggling to have alone quality time before bedtime, because inevitably whoever puts Carter to bed falls asleep with him for a while--me for maybe a half hour, him until I go in and wake him up to come to our bed. I should be smart enough to put on his music and leave him right away, but I do recognize that he won't be little like this for much longer. So, in the meantime, our DVR is full and might never get cleared out. Blogging takes an extra day or two. There are probably house things that I'm ignoring. Christmas is going to be a disaster because I am always up until midnight no matter what I do. Evenings are a little better than they used to be, particularly now that I'm not stuck in construction traffic for an extra 20 minutes every day. It doesn't feel like a big help on nights I have to grab Carter, but it is better and will be helpful once basketball starts (and on Halloween!) since I won't have as much of a rush to get through dinner. The flow of my work day still feels a little unnatural (longer morning, and 4:30 tends to sneak up on me on busy days), but I think eventually that will get easier. I've also been sick for three weeks--just obnoxious nasal congestion, particularly in one nostril, and lots of pressure. I'm over the mouth breathing and not wanting to get anyone else sick. It wakes me up at night, even with medicine because it eventually wears off, and I have a hard time falling back to sleep if I can't breathe through my nose. Even though the mucus is generally clear and it's not in my chest, I'm getting close to calling my doctor because it's fatiguing and just doesn't seem to be going away. In general, I'm treading water okay right now, but I don't know how long it will last before something gives.
Craig just had a very busy weekend to open training camp at work. We barely saw him, which is tough for the kids--and hard for me when the kids get me to my breaking point and no one else can take over. Jacob asked about 400 times this weekend to watch The Simpsons Movie, and on top of the usual sibling shenanigans and homework complaints, I pretty much told him to stop talking to me by Saturday night. Anyway, Craig's hard season is just starting, so we'll see how that goes. If I haven't mentioned it recently, he's down more than 30 pounds, so at least he's got that going for him. He looks great and may be bankrupting us trying to keep himself clothed, but we're all very proud of him and his hard work. He has likely bought back at least a few years of his life, and I'm eager to see what his cholesterol looks like when it gets checked on Tuesday. He's done it all very gradually, so hopefully that means that it will be easier to maintain. He's definitely making workouts and better eating a priority. That, along with his lactose intolerance, gives me an extra challenge with cooking, but we're managing.
Currently Wednesday night is Jacob's confirmation class and my bible class. On Friday Jacob has had basketball training, but that will be ending and we'll switch to twice-a-week basketball practice over the next couple weeks. Craig will be going to practices on Tuesdays, too, for work, mostly out of town. It'll be a whole new phase of adjustments around here, which I guess is something we've grown accustomed to. We're hanging in there. I think I'd give us a solid B right now, if this was a report card. Definitely room for improvement, if nothing else!
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