milestones

Henry's birthday is coming. His summer program is coming to an end. A new school year is ready to begin. All these moments to mark this place in time in my memory.

Tuesday Henry had his annual eye exam at 3. It was his class' day to swim in the Easter Seals indoor pool, from 1:15 to 2:15. I arrived around 2, shushing the teachers, so Henry wouldn't notice I was there, and watched him swim a little. Getting the kids dried off and back into their clothes seems to take up about half of the swim hour. I talked with Henry's teachers as they dried off each shivering skinny kid, and I had the opportunity to ask some of the kids their names. I noticed one boy hopping and flapping his hands excitedly in a Henry-esque way.

Henry was the last child out of the pool, and I thought back to 2 summers ago, when he would have been crying and holding on to a teacher for dear life, or just staying on the steps. Then I thought back to last summer, when he spent a good deal of time being separated from the other kids because aggression seemed to be the only form of communication he trusted.

All of a sudden, he is one of the big boys. One of the kids who gets to mess around with Mr. Chris, the cool swimming instructor, and stay in the pool longer than the rest. He has spent much of this summer being Ms. S's helper- making bulletin boards and getting lunches from the kitchen. Ms. S told me that she works at Home Depot on the weekends. They have kid projects from time to time, and she brought one in for the kids to work on: a pencil box. "Henry's been telling me that he made me a pencil box!" I said. But I didn't realize that he had made it using a hammer and nails!! I wouldn't have imagined that!

At the eye doctor, I was again astounded by, and so proud of, my sons. Each one sat in the chair, named the letters and pictures (Tommy doesn't know his letters yet), looked through the "machine that looks like a viewmaster", even let the doctor put the dilating drops in their eyes. They were perfect the entire time, except at the beginning of Thomas' exam: the doctor would say "Tommy, what am I pointing to?" and Henry would shout out the answer "a duck!"

I thought back to what a struggle last year's exam had been. Sigh. This is better. Things have improved. For all of us. The summer has flown by with hardly a behavioral blip. Henry actually made friends in the summer program. He and his brother are almost maybe starting to be friends. Thomas is using the potty almost all the time. Kate and I aren't yelling at each other all the time. Wow- it has been a pretty good year (knock on wood).

Today I approached my boss about altering my work hours. Henry will be picked up for school at 8:10. I am supposed to be at work at 8, and while I am consistently about 20 minutes late anyway, I think that being a whole hour late requires some discussion.

I looked into the before-care program at his school, but it is actually housed at a different elementary school. So I would have to drop Henry off at one location, to hang out with a group of kids for half an hour, then he would be transported on a bus to his school. This is unacceptable to me.

So I can't think of another option but to change my hours at work: either work 9-5:30 with a half hour for lunch instead of an hour, or officially change my work status to 90% time (which would of course incur a 10% pay cut.)

And I haven't forgotten the weird tag- I'm working on it. Have a great weekend everyone.