Week 24: A for Effort

Last Tuesday I spent three hours without children. Three hours without children and doing something mentally stimulating. I judged a round for this year's mock trial team up on campus, wich was very much fun.

It also got me remembering that despite all the grief over applications and stress over LSAT scores, I'm doing this because it's fun.

But last Monday was Halloween, and both kids were just as cute as, well a flamingo and a frog. Unfortunately it was pouring down rain, so after dashing around the neighboorhood a bit, we headed to the mall in Idaho and joined in the slow line of parents and children shuffling around the mall, holding out bags of candy. But Emily had a fantastic time, and was a wonderful and funny flamingo. I hadn't planned on dressing Will up, but at the last minute I dashed to ShopKo and found a darling frog costume, which was a) the only one in Will's size that wasn't very, very girly, and b) half price because it was so late. But it was perfect, and I'm glad he dressed up for his first Halloween. Even if Ian and I had a good laugh about how the costume ended up looking a bit more like a murloc than a frog, and also making all kinds of angry murloc sounds from the backseat as we drove around in the dark past his usual bedtime...

But I felt bad, two nights of disrupting Will Baby's schedule. He really is mostly quite a trooper, very flexible (a word not usually used to describe babies!). And by the time I came home after the mock trial scrimmage and having to swing by the store to buy Star Wars after, Will wasn't too happy with me. He spent the rest of the evening clawing and mauling me as we tried to watch Star Wars. And between Will and me asking "What planet is that?" "Why are they doing that?" and "Is the Chancellor really the Emperor?" (I hadn't really seen the last two), I'd be suprised if Ian really got anything out of it.

We didn't get too many trick-or-treaters, since we were gone most of the evening, but Emily enjoyed handing out the candy, like a real grown up kid. She really is such a big, big kid now, I'm amazed every day.

Also, my concerns about Emily's teacher conference were totally unfounded. Turns out, she's doing fantastic, top of her class in almost all areas (except for letter sounds, as I suspected). I ended up going myself, since I am, lets face it, much more on top of what Emily is doing in school and her homework and whatnot. But I was glad. I was glad to hear that she's doing so well, since I already knew how much she enjoys school (and of course, it's always good to hear someone agree that your child is bright, kind to others, and generally wonderful to have around). So all that worrying for nothing! We passed!