School Days

My boys started school earlier this month. They both love it and are very blessed to have wonderful teachers. Blaise's teacher is a first year teacher, but she seems to be so good and very enthusiastic. I asked his speech teacher how things seemed to be going when she would go into the classroom to get Blaise. She very enthusiastically told me what a wonderful teacher he has and described how the kids are enjoying 1st grade so much and are learning but having so much fun doing so. I have also been very impressed with her when talking with her. Tomorrow I will be able to go with Blaise on an all-day field trip, and I am very much looking forward to that.

Isaac's 4k teacher also is very enthusiastic about learning and genuinely enjoys each child. Isaac is so excited to go to school each day, and is excited about all he is learning. It is fun to see my less intrinsically-motivated child enthusiastic about learning.

Here are a few pictures from their first couple days of school. First, my first-grader:

I brought Isaac to school the first day so that I could take a picture of him with his teacher (right) and teacher's assistant (left):



Most other days now, he rides the bus to school, because it was available. He's only on the bus with 4k kids and really likes riding with his friends. The first day, though, we waited, and waited, and waited...

Apparently she didn't think Isaac would be riding since he hadn't on the first day, so she had to come back for him. But he was all the more excited then when the bus did come.

As I said, I pick my boys up at the end of the day. Blaise decided, and arranged with his teacher, that he would go to Isaac's classroom and walk out of school with him when Isaac's class was ready to go. So they walk out every day holding hands. It's just the cutest thing!



But now that I look more closely at that picture, I really need to bring my camera and take another one - one where it doesn't look like Isaac is picking his nose! Yuck!! :)

Two more reasons our family won't be getting a dog

I am NOT a pet lover. I like other people's pets, usually, but prefer them to remain other people's pets and to come over to our yard only to be petted or played with. I didn't grow up with pets, and I'm sure that if I had, I wouldn't feel so strongly against having them. Well, that's not entirely true: my brother did have a pet hamster for two years, but he stayed primarily in his cage and slept most of the day.

A few of my reasons for not wanted a dog specifically and a pet more generally include the following:

• Hair in the house. Dog and cat hair bother me and almost disgust me when it is almost all over the place, though again I can handle it better if it's someone else's place than I'm sure I would if it were my own.
• Animals tracking dirt into the house. I have kids who do plenty of that. But at least with kids, you can have a rule that they remove their shoes before entering the kitchen or other living spaces.

• Vet expenses. I have heard some stories about how much people have paid at the vet's office, even for routine care. I think I would be accused of negligence in care of my pet if I had one.
• What to do with a dog when going out of town. It's another thing to think about and take care of when packing everyone up.

So what has me on this rampage of sorts? I found two more reasons today not to get a dog. Actually, my lawn mower found them. Even after I had picked up one other reason before mowing the lawn. Between all our neighbors, there are 5 dogs now that are regularly in our yard, and two others that are rarely here. But they have rarely given us gifts in our yard. So I blame the dog my most immediate neighbor just brought home a few weeks ago. But alas, not a big deal; I just sprayed the wheels off a couple times and reminded myself why we will not get our own dog.

That being said, we did just order a tadpole a few days ago, which should be coming in the mail in November. I am kind of excited about that one, as are my boys. But I do not plan to venture too much further than that into the world of pets.

That's just me.