Tuesday, June 8

We had kind of an unusual morning on Tuesday this week. Ian has a buddy at school named Malachy and his mother called me Monday night to suggest that Ian come over to their house for a playdate Tuesday morning instead of going to school. She was going to be staying home to deal with the cable guy and was going to keep Malachy home, rather than deal with the drop off and pick up logistics while she was waiting. I figured it would be OK, especially since they both go to school 5 days a week and that means they have plenty of opportunity to do the projects, as most of the other kids go either Monday-Wednesday-Friday or Tuesday-Thursday. I didn't get as much done as I hoped, though, since Maranne (Malachy's mom) was in a chatty mood and we ended up talking for almost an hour before I left her with kids. They are real nice people. I have been so pleased overall with the parents of the kids Ian is buddies with. I know that won't be true always, but so far it has turned out that the kids he likes best have very friendly and compatible parents.

Anyway, I did eventually have to leave for an appointment at Rochester Works to talk about my ongoing job hunting efforts. I haven't been making much progress, mostly because it's so hard to keep up my energy for it. The counselor I spoke with did have a lot of good suggestions. I just need to get into the mindset and get working on it. I have decided that although I would really like to make the shift to the education and training side, that I need to keep up my job hunt in the straight network/computer support area as well, if only to get things moving. I'm glad to have the summer off, but it would be good to be back to work at least part-time by September. I don't know if our finances can handle me being off another year, especially if we are going to have a lot of expenses with the house.

Tuesday afternoon was our appointment for Kindergarten screening at Council Rock. Ian was totally excited to go, although I think he thought he was going to get more of a chance to play there than he did. We signed in and while Ian went off with the Speech and Communications lady, I spoke with the school psychologist. We mostly talked about any concerns I might have about Ian's readiness, especially socially. I said he was a shy guy and that he sometimes has trouble entering into group activities is he doesn't feel comfortable. He also has a streak of perfectionism and resistance to correction that hopefully he will be able to work through as he gets older. He does have his buddies though and seems to make friends easily, which is good. The psychologist indicated that from what I said, that it sounded like Ian was right in line with the typical child entering kindergarten. I agree, he's a mix - mature in some ways, immature in others. In other words, a typical 4.5 year old. By the time I was done, Ian was just about back from the hearing and vision test also, and then we were done. I guess everything was fine, since all they said was, "See you in September." He will hopefully have at least a couple of kids from CCB in his class, even if not his best buddies. Antonio is going to Penfield schools, Brendan to Pittsford and Malachy is in the city. Sam will be in Montessori another year and then go to Penfield, and Jake will be a year behind him in Fairport schools. I know he will make new friends, but I hope we will be able to keep up with some of the others, too, especially since they all have such nice parents!

Ian actually played quietly by himself with his Legos for a fair amount of the rest of the afternoon. I have to make a note of it since he isn't always as good about that as he could be. He was bad about dinner tonight, though. he has gotten much pickier about what he'll eat. I guess I should be glad that he's pretty good about vegetables and potatoes. He's not that bad overall, especially compared to some. He will eat hamburgers and hotdogs. He's a true son of Rochester, though - the hotdogs have to be Zweigle's red hots. He's been bad about chicken lately, which frustrates me, since he used to like it. He is also rejecting a lot of pasta now, including the Annie's organic mac and cheese, that he used to love. Not unusual for this age, I know, but still annoying.

I'm thankful for a bit cooler weather and days with my little guy. It's hard to believe he's going to Kindergarten already. As a wise person said, the days are long, but the years are short.