A New Living Room
Time to update quickly while the kids are asleep. Soon it will be hi-ho, hi-ho... you know the rest.
We had our first parent-teacher conference last evening. Man, what a difference a year - and a new teacher - makes. Not that Ava's preschool experience was negative, but Beth and I had been put on the alert that Ava had a "sensory dysfunction," which I had never heard of before.
To me, she seemed like a perfectly normal, energetic kid, but we had extra testing done last year and one of the therapists thought she was in need therapy outside of school - and I won't go way into it, because it is moot point. I haven't really ever discussed this on my blog because it is a very private matter...
...but long story short, Ava's new teacher told us last evening that Ava is right where she should be - even a little ahead of the game - and she is a perfectly normal five year old.
We were dreading this conference going into it, and relieved coming out. What a difference a second opinion makes.
And I'll say it again, I have utmost respect and admiration for our teachers. They have one of the world's most important - and sometimes thankless - jobs.
In other news, last week I played interior decorator, much to Beth's amazement. After moving Neil upstairs, we had discussed making our downstairs living room into a... well... living room. Since Ava was born, we have basically been living upstairs. We were all going stir crazy.
Well, I found myself bored last week (and that is never a good thing), so I decided I was going to get this place in shape. Beth and I had talked that a fireplace on the lower level would be kind of cool and a new t.v. in the "new" living room would be great, but the discussion never went any further than that.
In a rare moment of male independence, I went out on a shopping spree, picked out the goods without prior female approval, hauled it home and put it together while Beth was at work.
I brought home an electric fireplace (the best white-trash purchase I've made in a long time), and new 46 inch LED flatscreen. Then I moved furniture here and there... and then here and there some more.
Six hours later I was finished tinkering, lifting and maneuvering, and I decided it looked pretty cool.
I asked Ava, "What do you think Mom will say?"
Ava looked at me and said, matter-of-factly, "She's gonna hate it."
Gotta love that kid.
I suppose it is fair to say that I absolutely stunned the socks off my wife when she came home from work on Wednesday night. But much to my relief, she exclaimed, "I LOVE IT!"
Whew.
I have to admit it is going to be nice to sit in our new-found living room this winter. I've got new books to read and I will be as content as can be sitting on my couch next to my fake roaring fireplace, a Jameson in one hand and a good book in another.
Let the snow fly.
We had our first parent-teacher conference last evening. Man, what a difference a year - and a new teacher - makes. Not that Ava's preschool experience was negative, but Beth and I had been put on the alert that Ava had a "sensory dysfunction," which I had never heard of before.
To me, she seemed like a perfectly normal, energetic kid, but we had extra testing done last year and one of the therapists thought she was in need therapy outside of school - and I won't go way into it, because it is moot point. I haven't really ever discussed this on my blog because it is a very private matter...
...but long story short, Ava's new teacher told us last evening that Ava is right where she should be - even a little ahead of the game - and she is a perfectly normal five year old.
We were dreading this conference going into it, and relieved coming out. What a difference a second opinion makes.
And I'll say it again, I have utmost respect and admiration for our teachers. They have one of the world's most important - and sometimes thankless - jobs.
~
In other news, last week I played interior decorator, much to Beth's amazement. After moving Neil upstairs, we had discussed making our downstairs living room into a... well... living room. Since Ava was born, we have basically been living upstairs. We were all going stir crazy.
Well, I found myself bored last week (and that is never a good thing), so I decided I was going to get this place in shape. Beth and I had talked that a fireplace on the lower level would be kind of cool and a new t.v. in the "new" living room would be great, but the discussion never went any further than that.
In a rare moment of male independence, I went out on a shopping spree, picked out the goods without prior female approval, hauled it home and put it together while Beth was at work.
I brought home an electric fireplace (the best white-trash purchase I've made in a long time), and new 46 inch LED flatscreen. Then I moved furniture here and there... and then here and there some more.
Six hours later I was finished tinkering, lifting and maneuvering, and I decided it looked pretty cool.
I asked Ava, "What do you think Mom will say?"
Ava looked at me and said, matter-of-factly, "She's gonna hate it."
Gotta love that kid.
I suppose it is fair to say that I absolutely stunned the socks off my wife when she came home from work on Wednesday night. But much to my relief, she exclaimed, "I LOVE IT!"
Whew.
I have to admit it is going to be nice to sit in our new-found living room this winter. I've got new books to read and I will be as content as can be sitting on my couch next to my fake roaring fireplace, a Jameson in one hand and a good book in another.
Let the snow fly.
