The Golden Child

Or is it the Last Emporer? In any case, we balded him. His hair was growing too long for my taste, it was going over his ears so I called him "Hobbit."

Eh?

I have no idea where I've been. Q's face is how I've been feeling the past 2 months. Family and work have been keeping me busy as you can see...

But I interrupt the lazy blogging break to announce this:

Q turned 1 year old last week and he is still toothless. (And in case you were wondering, he doesn't walk yet either.)

We celebrated Q's birthday at San Jose's Happy Hollow Park and Zoo - great place for kids. The park/zoo itself isn't that big so you feel comfortable letting the kids run around without having to worry about them getting lost. But then again, I wouldn't know because I didn't venture outside our little picnic area. (I stay where the food is at.)

The bigger kids X & A started school a few weeks ago. They attended a private school before and we thought we'd give the lovely California public school system a try. It was a first for both me and the kids since I went to private school when I was little too and it was a huge adjustment. Too much of an adjustment - we ended up putting them back in private school.

I think I'm just not used to how big and open public schools are. First, the little one, A, got lost a few times within the school grounds and cried. She got lost trying to find her class line, trying to find the bathroom, trying to find her classroom after lunch.... Second, after school I was surprised to learn that they just let the kids out. At the private school, I guess I was spoiled in that they don't let the kids leave the school grounds unless they actually see the parents or guardian pick the kids up from the gate (this is all the way to 8th grade too). If the kids aren't picked up, they immediately go to afterschool daycare. I like the fact that I can show up anytime of the day and they will always know exactly where my kids are. Public school... not the same way. I almost cried one day because I couldn't find my kids. The first grade substitute teacher let my 5 year old daughter leave the school grounds - at least she let him leave with her older brother, but I had a hell of a time trying to find them.

On top of all that - they didn't have room for my daughter and they wanted to overload her to another school. I asked if they could move my son to the same school but they didn't have room for him. I refuse to make my daughter adjust to yet another campus - she was already having such a hard time with the one she was already at - plus I didn't want her to be at a school without her big brother.

I'm not knocking the public school system - we're just not ready for it yet. I know that I'll have to put the kids in public school when they get older because I can't afford the $5000 a month for high school tuition, but for now, I'm going to ride the private school train as long as I can.

H and G

"... hi and goodbye..." -- Sleepless in Seattle

Now that I'm back, I'm going again. We're packing up the family tomorrow for our road trip to L.A. to attend a wedding. Hmmm... 5 hours in a car with 3 kids, we are planning for 2 stops, but I predict 5.

We're also going to go to Disneyland, we figure we might as well knock that out while we're down there -- pacify the kids for another 2 years.

Happy Thursday! I leave you with this picture... Q is crawling now. :)

never take pictures of a sleeping baby

I was only trying to take a picture of him sleeping with his head on his hands!

(I know that babies should sleep on their backs but now that he can roll over back and forth they say it's ok. Plus, when I flip him on his back, he'll flip back to his stomach again anyway.)