true love

Perhaps it would be more accurate to entitle this entry heartbreak. Six weeks ago, I met the love of my life. We have been attending daily swim lessons together and becoming better friends by the minute. We were so perfect together that the swim school created special classes so it would just be us two and the teacher. This was done also, in part, because we are superstars and they didn't want us swimming with the big kids who normally enroll at this level.

I knew it was true love because she swims as masterfully as I do. We both wanted to have children . . . but not until after we were doctors. Then she decided that she doesn't want to be a mother because it is too much work so I suppose I can raise our babies. I forgot to tell her that I had long ago decided to name my offspring Helen and Jasper. I should say that we both wanted to be doctors until we saw how fun it could be to teach swimming. Maybe we can drop our lofty ambitions to open a swim school. Then I met her dad and he wholeheartedly approves of me and he has convinced me to be an engineer. So many options.

Sadly, she is moving away this week. We will become penpals and NOT by e-mail or anything insincere like that; we will be real penpals and exchange old-fashioned love letters. Someday I will marry this girl.

The good news is that she and I can both swim 80 feet of freestyle and competitive backstroke. And now I am on a well-deserved hiatus from training.

preschool, part III

If you refer back to my blog post of February 25, 2012, you will read about my acceptance to the Montessori school that has/had the finest of reputations. Tragically, I found myself in the midst of a perfect storm this year: several classmates with significant unaddressed behavior issues, a new guide whose mentor was selling her short, and parents who were not adhering to the media policy. Toward the end of the school year, it was becoming increasingly obvious that staying there was too much of a gamble.

At just the right moment, a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend (who we have still never met) swooped in to save me and, before I knew it, I was invited to interview at an even better school! Needless to say, on the day I interviewed, I was at my best. I charmed everyone from the front office staff to the founder/director and I was promptly offered the spot that every child in town desperately wants.

In the photo above, taken several days after my interview, I am returning my forms to my new NEW school. If I look a bit groggy, it's because I woke up at 4:30am eager to bake. We had our loaf of bread in the oven by 7:00. (Now I have to wonder why we didn't take any bread to share with the office staff at my new school.)

Now, I really do hope to stay in one place until the end of elementary school. The preschool admissions process has been grueling but for good reason: every one dollar spent on high quality preK education saves four when it comes time for college. This has been excellent practice though because quality preschools have a much lower acceptance rate (stalled around 2.3% in urban areas) than Harvard (5.8%). My application success rate was 100%.

Having said that, I do need to start applying for middle schools NOW. Wish me luck.

swimming

This time last year, I was a swim lesson dropout. I had enrolled in another set of lessons at the YMCA and spent the entire time sitting on the stairs while the teacher tried most unsuccessfully to coax the other children into the water. At the first class, not only did the teacher fail to formally introduce herself to me or ask my name but a lifeguard was assigned to me to prevent me from trying to swim. After several classes, things did not improve and we sent a strongly worded letter to the Director of Aquatics and got a full refund. A big part of the problem is that they have only one level of classes for ages 3-5 and teach to the lowest performer. See evidence of my dread and boredom below. 

This summer is an entirely different story. I have enrolled in a swim school and I have a lesson every day of the week. It's a huge undertaking and my life revolves around swimming. Prior to registering, I was tested and placed in the Advanced class. I finished that level, skipped the next, and am in Super now. Below is a photo of me with my very attentive coach.

I am perfecting my freestyle stroke. I have started working on backstroke. Soon I will add breaststroke and butterfly. Each day, I swim a bit further.

soccer

Today marked the start of what is already proving to be a very successful soccer career.

To say I have been eagerly awaiting soccer season is a gross understatement. I signed up weeks ago and have been counting down the seconds while I practice at home. I had even perfected my soccer pose, modeling it after one of the players I saw in the Seattle Sounders brochure my grandmother sent.

I woke up this morning around 4:00 ready to go. NOW. We arrived a bit early to soccer and that just presented another grueling wait. Once I finally got on the field, I proved myself as the fastest most accurate player with the best concentration. Thankfully, I also have the only set of parents who don't stand at the sidelines and bark orders at me about what the coach has just said. (Note to those parents: your kids were listening to the coaches until you started hollering. The second you say something, your kids stop playing soccer and wander off to talk to you.)

Soccer caused me to be famished so we lunched at Whole Foods afterward. I had pizza, mashed potatoes, a cinnamon roll, and apple juice. carbs!

sewing

My mom visited with my teacher yesterday for their final conference of the year. I am excelling as a Montessori student.

Now that I have mastered the maps (I know and can identify all of the continents and some oceans) and the geometric solids, I have been sewing. It is my goal to have a sample perfect enough to submit to Trinity in support of my job application.

My school day looks much like my day at home and my teacher says this is the ideal. I read every book. And then talk about every detail of every book. (We raided Trinity's prized Roald Dahl stash and my dad has been reading chapter books to me and my mom quizzes me about plot and characters.)  I build. (In addition to the river my dad and I have built, I have multiple construction projects in the yard.) I engage anyone and everyone in conversation. (My teacher says I am well qualified to be a debater. At home, my dad is usually on the losing end of this.) I have been developing my math skills and I think we can thank my mom for this. (OK, maybe not.)

About my river: we got the water bill yesterday. It was big. Like the Amazon.

the donut saga

Since our last trip to the library, I have been reading Who Needs Donuts? almost obsessively.

Every morning on our way to school, we pass by a family owned donut shop. On sunny mornings, they have a dancing donut outside. The donut shop is painted a cheerful blue and features a mural of a police car. (classic)

I had decided that I must try donuts. It took a great deal of coordinating but I woke up extra early yesterday and sped through my morning routine so we could visit the donut shop en route to school. (Yes, shhhhhhhhh, I know I committed a cardinal Montessori sin and ate sugar before school.)

No one can recall for certain but it seems I had never ever tried donuts. My mom had been to this donut shop before and had probably since spent a bit too much time talking/thinking about it. I was taken in by all of the colors. My initial choice was a donut with pink frosting and rainbow sprinkles. good choice. At the last second, I changed my mind and ordered a mint chocolate chip donut. Although my mom knew that I wouldn't like the minty frosting, she did not intervene. The only time she alters my order is when I try to make a request for a latte. It was no surprise that I did not like the minty donut. We left the donut shop and, thankfully, I had my snack bag full of the usual healthy offerings and my cup of soymilk to fill my tummy.

We will have to try this again one day. Next time, the pink donut it is!

salvation

Trinity departed early Monday morning after spending a week with me. She came here to take care of me while I had a break from school and while my parents work too much. I scarcely remember my mom. Luckily, we've somehow almost made it through the legislative session and then my mom will return to enjoying her housewife life and never ever will we do something like this again. It's almost impossible for me to go to school full time and take care of my dad; he's a lot of work and it can be challenging to get him to remember the procedures.

When Trinity was here, we had countless tasks on our list of things to do - including visiting the barber and, as you can see, I am still in desperate need of a haircut. But we ate a lot. And caught up on our sleep. I slept until 9:20 one morning and Trinity even had to wake me up! I am now just as addicted to tacos as she is and let's not even talk about cakepops and cocoa. My grandmother sent me a gift card so I could buy my own snacks.

As an added bonus, we had a cold front while Trinity was here. The very day she left, we suffered through a mid 90s day. In the morning when I first step outside, I always comment on the weather. These days, I say "it's not too bad today." I won't be able to say that much longer.