Last Days of Summer

A friend from California was staying with us a couple weeks ago. It was really nice having the friendly company. It was so relaxed and familiar, I was actually sad to see him go. Hopefully, next time he comes, he'll bring his wife and kids! While he was here, he helped us with a home-improvement project, but was "stymied, thwarted, mission aborted" when he ran out of time. He was telling us that the phrase "stymied, thwarted, mission aborted" was from a Dr. Suess book called The Butter Battle Book. I liked the phrase so much I went to the library and got the book. I can't remember a picture book making me that uncomfortable before. It's this silly book about two towns who are at battle because each one butters their bread on the opposite side as the other. Of course the whole book is an allegory for the Cold War and at the end of this book, you know that the "Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo" is a nuclear bomb. I was actually squirming by the end. As an aside, the phrase is not actually in the book, but in the movie.

Clara's glasses made their first (of many predicted) trip(s) back to the eye doctor for a repair. Apparently, Eli got hold of them and completely bent them out of shape. There is a small piece that is broken in the hinge, but they are as back to "normal" as they can be. Poor Clara was so upset when she found them... too bad they weren't on her face where they should have been! I guess this gets filed under 'lessons learned'.

This past Sunday, our neighbor invited us to go with a large group of her friends into DC. She had reserved tickets for all of us to go to the top of the Washington Monument, something that I have wanted to do since we first moved here. The windows were tiny and slightly hazy, the area, though not small, felt tiny with all those people crammed into it, but the views were spectacular... totally worth it!

Yesterday we went to the National Zoo with a friend and her kids. I was amazed at how little interest my kids had in the animals at first. All the kids loved the Invertebrate House (which makes me think that a trip to the aquarium might be in our future). I'm trying to remember the exact turning point for Lucas... and I'm thinking it was the hippo. The hippo was the first animal that was sooo big and sooo close. After the hippo, Lucas was finally more interested in the animals than the info plaques along the walk. Of course, the interest didn't help him keep up and stay with our group... his constant lagging and disappearance increased MY stress levels immensely. Clara started off immediately wanting to see the red panda (she had read about one recently), took one look and started gathering leaves. In fact, that was pretty much how she spend the majority of the day... either imagining all the different fairies that could live and hide in the flora along the walk or checking her watch to let us know that it was past lunchtime. Eli and Lucas really enjoyed the monkeys, both big and small. At the end of the day, everyone had had a great time... it was definitely a wonderful last bit of fun before school starts.

Tonight we learned that Clara's second grade teacher will be Mrs. Thibodeaux and her special education teacher will be Mrs. Gillespie. I admit that with all new teachers, I worry that we will be starting from scratch within the system. I know that they will read her file and her IEP to familiarize themselves with Clara, but it's not the same as having that familiarity of having worked with her previously. Of course, as I type this I wonder... maybe that's a good thing? She has matured a lot over the summer and with all new teachers, there won't be any preformed judgements of how she will react/respond to situations. I'm just glad that Clara is excited and happily anticipating the new school year, because I (obviously) worry enough for the both of us.

We also found out tonight that Jason's dad had emergency surgery earlier in the day to repair a hernia. We are really glad that he is recovering nicely and will possibly be home tomorrow, however, we are waiting to find out if he'll be able to travel, as they were planning to come see us middle of this month (in time for Eli's birthday).