Rocco's Pre-K.indergarten Graduation

 

Rocco graduated from pre-kindergarten today.

I can't believe my baby boy is going to be a kindergartener in the fall!

His school held a super-cute graduation ceremony. They put together a nice slideshow of all the kids, they sang songs, they were all dressed in little gowns and caps, and cake was served afterwards.

Rocco had a great experience at his school. He went to school 3 days a week from 9am-4 or 5pm. He loved it and had made a number of friends. There were maybe 4 or 5 little guys that he talked about often - so we know he was maturing in that he was able to develop true friendships... not just parallel play anymore. This seems to happen later for little boys than girls (based on our own experience, of course). He gravitated toward one friend more than the others, so we had that little boy, Ian, over to play at our house once, and Rocco also played at his house once too.

I really liked Rocco's teachers. I loved the school. I liked that they provided so many opportunities to learn and practice writing and numbers and science projects, etc. But, they always made it FUN. Rocco frequently came home with worksheets completed, and sometimes an art project or two. It was obvious art was not a serious area of interest for him though! ha!

We also learned that Rocco was a good friend to his classmates. We received an email from a parent of one of his classmates. This mother told us that her daughter would often get teased by one of the little boys in the class. And, she proceeded to tell us how Rocco would stick up for her little girl, Mary, and that he would deflect the other little boy so he would leave Mary alone. This mother seemed so thankful for Rocco's kindness... and Mary clearly thought Rocco was a champ. I was SO PROUD when I read this email from Mary's mother. I knew we were raising a kind, sweet, little boy... but this just reinforced it. I told Rocco all about it and how proud we are of him and the young man he is becoming. He was clearly very proud and talked about this for days.

All in all... I think our little guy is ready for k.indergarten.

And of coure, with each life milestone like this... I can't help but feel a strong pain in my chest and a heavy heart. Matteo should be here too. He should have had this pre-K experience. He should be going to k.indergarten too. The pain just never goes away.

Clear margins... feeling thankful!

My mom chose to have a double mastectomy.

 

I am happy to share that my mom's surgery went extremely well. The surgeon was able to remove the cancer successfully, and the sentinel lymph node was cancer free [based on frozen sections (90% accurate) - final path results will come next week].

 

She's now working to heal from this major surgery, and will meet with her care team in a few weeks to determine next steps. Most likely, the next steps will include several months of chemotherapy and possibly radiation treatments.

 

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers... and send as much positive energy as you can her way. 

 

She has been through so much. I am so proud of her... it takes a lot of courage, strength, research, and faith in her care team, to make the decisions she's had to make, and fight this battle head-on.

 

*****

UPDATE: Final path results did show that the sentinel lymph node was indeed cancer free.

A Quiet Place...

So, we recently caved and bought that *oh so fancy* diary from T.arget for Gabby. Fancy in that the child gets to voice record their password. Sounds pretty cool, right?

Ohmygosh... it is a parent's nightmare. NIGHTMARE! For numerous reasons.

How many 7 year olds remember their password? I'm 38 and I feel like I forget passwords every other day.

Also, if the child doesn't speak clearly, with the same intonations or speed... the diary won't' open.

When your child can't get their diary to open for whatever reason, you are unfortunately going to hear about it. (Code for tantrums, meltdowns, and crying like it's the end of the freaking-world.)

Gabby spent at least a half hour today frantically going from room to room in search of a *quiet place* to voice record her new password to the diary.  (GOOD LUCK, GIRL!! I've been trying for 7.5 years too!)

Rocco's 1st Year in L.ittle L.eague

We decided to sign Rocco up for L.ittle L.eague.

What a JOKE! HA!

Let's just say that 5 year old boys have little to no interest in playing baseball... unless they are actually hitting the ball off a tee. Or, more accurately... I should describe this as whacking at a ball on the tee.

Rocco was excited about the experience... his uniform pants, his new shoes and a nut cup (as his daddy told him - he thought this was hilarious).

But, we learned quickly that outside of his moments at-bat, he just did not yet have the attention span for the game of baseball. The things he did love about the entire experience really had nothing to do with the sport itself.

He loved:
* playing with the dirt on the field
* finding good rocks while standing on the pitchers mound, in the outfield... and much to his parents surprise... even stopping while running to 1st base to stop and pick up a rock he spotted along the way (and subsequently, getting an out).
* playing on the play structure next to the baseball field at every break, inning change... basically every possible opportunity, we had to gather the little boys from the play structure and direct them back to the field. Good times.
* hitting the bat on the dirt, trying to crush rocks
* playing 2 games against his best pal, Reid
* and of course, every at-bat opportunity was something he really did enjoy (thank goodness it wasn't a total loss!)

If any of us get bad...

ROCCO: "Mom, if any of us get bad... you should just start putting us in handcuffs!"

ME: "That is a brilliant idea, Rocco!"


[[Reason #172 why little boys have no future in babysitting!]]