Back to School

It's been one heck of a month and a half -- very, very busy and lots of change! I think we're just getting into the swing of things, dare-I-say. Here's a little taste of what we've been up to in the past six weeks. Rosemary started her school, three half-days a week. Below are pictures from her first day. Much to our happiness and relief, she absolutely loves St. Mark's -- in fact, one thing we "threaten" her with (though I suppose wouldn't actually follow through on) when we need to (justifiably, of course) manipulate her is not sending her to school. The second week of school she woke up a few days at 5:30 AM because she was excited to go to school. Thankfully, that has not persisted. Overall, we're really thrilled that she has a nice old-fashioned preschool to go to where they spend a lot of time outside playing and do music every day, and even go to "chapel" (10 minutes, once a week where they sing and hear stories -- Rosemary loves rules, and I think once she is a little older and "gets" it she will really like it/find it comforting). Most mornings either James or I or, even better, both of us, can walk her to school, coffee in hand (or we walk and she rides her Skuut bike). Currently we are quite glad that Rosemary has someone to condescend to on a regular basis (e.g. Louis) so we don't have to bear ALL the burden -- she is also about a year older than most of the kids in her class since she has a fall birthday and is constantly scolding them for not putting their things away, not staying seated during lunchtime, or not being old enough to play with particular toys. On the plus side, her teachers say she's a great little helper, particularly during clean-up time. The picture above mom took on "Grandparents Day" at St. Marks, where mom, dad, and Aunt Mo (as Rosemary's "special friend") joined her for chapel. I think its a hilarious -- Rosemary's robot is the one left of her elbow with the squares line up -- as a pretty true indicator of her personality.


On Fridays Rosemary has ballet lessons after school! Unlike her regular class, she is the youngest one in the ballet class, and I am really, really proud of her. She follows along in everything the teacher asks the girls to do and was very brave the other day -- they were dancing under a parachute and taking turns, and she went under the parachute all by herself to dance in front of the whole class! Just a year ago at the Little Gym she refused to go under the parachute at all. After the first 2 weeks of school we went to church for the "blessing of the backpacks" -- a beginning of the school year tradition. It was a very touching to have a the whole church community wishing the kids a safe and productive year in school -- everything is making me really nostalgic right now, but especially that exciting, "back-to-school" feeling.

I have also started my classes. For the first four weeks or so, it was really up-and-down between my thinking I absolutely couldn't do it and leave the kids for so much time and feeling extremely excited about being a student and learning new schools. James has been really, really encouraging and supportive, and has had a lot of time to spend with the kids, so, seven weeks later I'd say: overall, so far so good!
Louis got his first pair of shoes this month although he promptly outgrew them about four weeks later. He and Rosemary are increasingly playing together -- he thinks she is wonderful and tries to grab everything she has and do everything she does. For the most part, Rosemary handles this very well, only getting annoyed once in a while.


Rosemary is really into riding her Skuut bike these days. James went to Washington for a weekend and Rosemary, Louis and I went down to Town Lake to ride bikes. She can really move on that thing and it won't be long before she can ride a two-wheeler -- she already can balance for long stretches. Its the one area where she seems to be quite adventurous -- otherwise she is quite cautious (although I'd say she's getting more and more adventurous as she gets older -- she'll do things like climb rocks and ladders now -- which is all recent -- all things Beatrice has done since like, 10 months!). The picture below was taken on Louis's 11 month birthday at his one and only friend Wilder's house. Louis continues to be the world's most charming baby. He occasionally gets angry --usually about unreasonable things we do like making him take naps or withholding food (for a second), but he is mostly a winning personality and extremely easy. Or at least emotionally easy. He is in that phase where he is obsessed with standing and trying to walk (still nothing more than one single step, which he took about a week and a half ago using an upside down broom as a crutch), so he can easily hurt himself, and often is covered with bruises.


We finished the last major bit of work we want to do on the house until next summer, replacing all the windows and getting new wood trim. As the trim was being painted, we went to Dallas for the weekend for the State Fair. Rosemary was really, really thrilled to see Mamo, and we had a great time at the fair. Surprisingly, Rosemary went on the HUGE Texas-sized ferris wheel (only I was scared). The petting zoo included baby kangaroos, a giraffe (which intimidated Louis), cows, llamas, and alpacas.