{"id":867,"date":"2010-09-16T22:16:30","date_gmt":"2010-09-17T03:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/?p=867"},"modified":"2010-09-18T12:06:03","modified_gmt":"2010-09-18T17:06:03","slug":"five-year-olds-and-infants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/2010\/09\/five-year-olds-and-infants\/","title":{"rendered":"Five-Year Olds and Infants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, 13 September 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

As part of my don\u2019t-work-on-Mondays policy that I instituted in late July, I took the day off of work today.<\/p>\n

Okay, really I took the day off of work since it\u2019s my son\u2019s first day of Kindergarten.<\/p>\n

I think it went well. We were allowed to go into the classroom early, so that Owen could get used to it a little bit before the other students arrived. We put Owen\u2019s backpack on the hook where his name was, and he put on the name tag provided. Inside, the teacher had set up an easel with all the kids\u2019 names on it and she asked Owen to circle his name. He found his name quickly and, choosing the pink marker, circled his name.<\/p>\n

We spent a little bit of time looking around the classroom; we found Owen\u2019s name at one table, and at another we found a puzzle for Owen to play with while we waited.<\/p>\n

The other kids came in quick, most of them had one or more parents with them. One little girl was dropped off by her older brother (he looked like he was starting 4th<\/sup> or 5th<\/sup> grade, and he was not happy to have to show his little sister to her new class). One mom was unabashedly crying. Another mom showed up with her fancy-schmancy camera and took pictures of her son\u2019s first day.<\/p>\n

About ten minutes later, the teacher rang the windchime hanging in her room and told the students to come sit on the floor next to her. Seeing Owen, she told him he could come sit right next to her. Cautiously, he did. And we slipped out.<\/p>\n

I hope he likes Kindergarten. I did. So did my wife. I think, in retrospect, it was the best year of compulsory schooling I ever had. And the most important.<\/p>\n

Tuesday, 14 September 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh. My. God.<\/p>\n

Today , finally, felt like being back in the old routine. I\u2019m at work, Owen\u2019s at day two of Kindergarten, and Jennifer is taking care of Isla. The fun day at work last week (when there was a picnic) is over, and after going to work on three of the last 48 days, I now have no plans for any vacations. At all. I checked with my supervisor, however, and I do have 11 vacation days left, so if the mood hits me\u2026 (On the other hand, it might be smart to carry some of those days over to next year when I begin taking classes again.)<\/p>\n

In other news: my worker sent me THIS LINK<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never seen a trailer for a book\u2026have you? I thought trailers were just for movies and TV shows. Hm. This is a new twist in the world of advertising. And, apparently it\u2019s effective, because after watching the trailer, I immediately surfed over to the library\u2019s website and put the book on hold. As the site says, if the book is half as good as the trailer, it\u2019ll be worth a read.<\/p>\n

In other news: I received THIS BOOK<\/a> in the mail today. Signed by the author, no less. I gotta say, I could really get used to authors and publishing companies sending me free copies of their books; \u201cWhat, you mean it\u2019s free as long as I write a critique of it? Uh\u2026okay\u2026since I\u2019d probably write a critique of it anyway, you might as well send me a free copy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeah, so, anyways, I\u2019ll put a link to my review once that\u2019s online.<\/p>\n

Wednesday, 15 September 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

I got a call from my sister today. She says she won\u2019t be able to make Isla\u2019s baby shower (technically called a \u201cwelcoming the babies party\u201d by the party planners) this weekend. She has to work most Saturdays, so her news was not terribly surprising. Another friend of ours sent an email saying they\u2019re gonna be out of town this weekend, so they can\u2019t make the party either. Again, no problems\u2026it just gives me flashbacks to Owen\u2019s baby shower. Journey with me back in time real quick here:<\/p>\n

So, in 2005, when Owen was 5 weeks old, our friends, Andy and Bobbi, hosted a baby shower for Owen. I had been looking forward to the shower for weeks, hoping it would be a fun day that would lift Jennifer\u2019s (and my) spirits and be an all-around fun day of being with friends. Andy and Bobbi, to their credit, cleaned their already beautiful house up even more. With help from my wife\u2019s sister Kara, they decorated marvelously \u2013 even putting up signs down the block directing traffic. Our friend Laura, meanwhile, make the cake from scratch; a cake that, hands down, was one of the most creative a tasty cakes I\u2019ve ever enjoyed.<\/p>\n

But guess what? No one came.<\/p>\n

Well, not exactly no one, of course. But close. Besides Andy, Bobbi, Kara, and Laura (the party planners), and their kids and spouses, the party was attended by our mom\u2019s, our sister-in-law Tina, and two friends. One of those friends was actually the mom of my friend Jamin (who didn\u2019t show up), and another friend was someone we hadn\u2019t spoken to in years, but who had just happened to meet up with Bobbi at a recent Witness meeting.<\/p>\n

I knew some people wouldn\u2019t be there: my father-in-law and brother-in-law were already planning on attending the family shower one week later, so they probably saw no reason to come to both showers. My sister, as always, was working. My friend Nick had just gotten married and was still on his honeymoon. Other people didn\u2019t bother to say they wouldn\u2019t be showing up, but I found out why later: Jamin, unbeknownst to me, was off getting married. My friend Rhett had just broken his leg, and was immobilized. Meanwhile, Bobbi\u2019s mom \u201cFlorida\u201d (who had been invited), didn\u2019t feel like showing up, but did feel like calling to see how the party was going. When her daughter mentioned that my mom-in-law Debbie was there, Florida said: \u201cOh, if I would\u2019ve known Debbie was going to be there, I would\u2019ve come.\u201d Thanks Florida. That meant a lot to Jennifer and me.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, as we piled our cranky baby and gifts into the car and drove away, Jennifer said: \u201cWell that was my worst nightmare come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think she was exaggerating, because it was nice of our friends to host that party, even though (almost) no one came; but I understood her meaning.<\/p>\n

Enough whining. I hope we\u2019ve fixed what went wrong last time: there\u2019s no need to have a separate party for friends and family, for one thing. For another thing, this party is for my sister-in-law\u2019s new baby, too, so that might maximize the attendance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, 13 September 2010 As part of my don\u2019t-work-on-Mondays policy that I instituted in late July, I took the day off of work today. Okay, really I took the day off of work since it\u2019s my son\u2019s first day of Kindergarten. I think it went well. We were allowed to go into the classroom early, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions\/869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}