Placed on Waiting List

Well, I found the results to the High Tech Elementary lottery and Kailani was placed on the waiting list. It looks like students are selected from the wait list based on zip code. If someone from a particular zip code chooses not to enroll, a child from the wait list in that same zip code fills the spot. I am not sure how they determine the order for several students from the same zip code. I am happy with the decision to send Kailani to the dual language program at Heritage Elementary. I just hope she gets in to the am kindergarten class so we're guaranteed to have on site child care.

New Address

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Lovin' the Back Yard

Although the kids have been sick all weekend, they've enjoyed playing out in the back yard. It rained a few days this week, so water pooled up on the "wall" in the back. Kailani and Zachary love to climb on the wall and splash in the rain. Zachary just got new rain boots that he absolutely loves. I even caught Bruno playing on the wall. Actually, he was drinking the water on it.Zachary seems to be feeling better. His fever is gone, but his nose is runny. Kailani still has a fever that even rose to 103 this afternoon. Her nose is really stuffy and she's snoring very loudly right now:) I've tried waking her up to tell her to breathe out of her mouth, but she doesn't get it. I will be taking both kids to the doctor tomorrow to see if more than just a cold is going on.

Starting to Get Somewhere

We're starting to make some progress in the house. The kitchen was finished today and I am so ready to start putting things away so it can be put to use.
Zachary woke up in the middle of the night with a fever, so I stayed home with him today. He's been running a fever on and off all day. I'm not sure what is going on. He doesn't seem to have any other symptoms. He hasn't had a seizure, so I'm hoping he won't at this point.

Keeping Busy

It's been a while since I've had time to blog...
We're all moved in to the new house. There are a few items at the old house that I need to pick up tomorrow. Becky is going to help out with the cleaning so we'll be able to get our security deposit back.
The new house is coming together. The paint and the carpet look nice. The kitchen countertops were installed today. The plumber will be coming tomorrow to hook up the faucet and the plumbing. Once the kitchen is back in order, most of the boxes can be emptied. The kids' rooms are pretty much done with the exception of a few things.

Jason left on Wednesday for Florida. He'll be gone until July. It was really nice having him home and we were all used to him being around. Hopefully with all of the things we have to do, the time will go by fast.
Tonight we went to Chick fil A for a Mommy and Me dinner. We took a tour of the kitchen and the kids got to make their own ice cream sundaes. **To see pictures from the dinner, go to http://www.walgreens.com/, click on photo, and login with the following username/password: eastlakecfa/santacow.
We've got a busy weekend ahead of us.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This morning Kailani had her kindergarten assessment at Heritage Elementary. She met with one of the teachers to see what she already knows. She did well on the assessment, but she was shy at first and wouldn't count or say the days of the week even though she knows them. We got the 2011-2012 school calendar for Chula Vista. Kailani will start school on July 20 and end on May 31. I'm not sure yet how that will work with my school's schedule. After her assessment, Jason and I took Kailani out to breakfast at the Broken Yolk Cafe. We've heard good things about the Broken Yolk, but this is the first time we've tried it.

Time is Running Out

Yesterday Kailani got her praying mantis egg sac and pagoda in the mail. She is very excited to watch them hatch. It should take anywhere from 3-6 weeks. Hopefully it all happens before we leave for PA.When we first got the new house, it seemed like we had so much time before we had to be out of the old one. I am not sure where all of that time went! The movers will be here in a week and we have to be ready. We've been packing for weeks, but there is still so much to do.

The painters finished painting the rest of the house on Friday. Everything looks nice. I like the color we picked for the downstairs better than the color that was there originally. The carpet and flooring will be installed next week. I am going to have a lot to do once Jason leaves.

Today we celebrated the upcoming spring season by painting baskets at Dunn Edwards paint store. We saw the flyer for the event when we went there to pick out the paint colors for the painters. The kids were able to paint a basket, which was a paint bucket decorated with Easter pictures. After the kids decorated their baskets, the girl filled them with goodies, including a Dunn Edwards t-shirt.

Happy Birthday Becky!

Tonight we took Becky out for her 30th birthday. We had a great time.

Just Like Daddy

Ladybugs and a Potty Party

This morning Kailani let her ladybugs go. She had about 5 or 6 of them and we thought they would be happier in a bigger space where they could fly. She really enjoyed letting them go. It looks like there may be a few more waiting to change into ladybugs, so we'll give them a little more time. I ordered the praying mantis kit, so we'll be doing that in a few weeks. After that, we'll do tadpoles. In the Scholastic book order for Kailani's class, there is a library of science books that include life cycles of several insects and animals. I think those will be perfect for Kailani. She really seems to be into science.

Today we went to a Pulls Up Potty Dance house party. Our meetup group has pretty good luck winning house parties. This party was for kids who are near or already in the potty training stage. Zachary is definitely aware of the potty. He wants to sit on the potty and he lets us know when he's gone potty in his diaper, but he has not yet used the potty. I think he'll be ready soon. They will work on it in daycare in the twos room, which he'll be in soon.

The party was a lot of fun. The kids each got to make a crown so they could be the king or queen of the throne (potty). They got to throw a rolled up diaper into a potty seat to win a sticker. Kailani and Zachary had fun with that. We had lots of snacks and even a cake with the potty dance moves on the icing. Each potty training kid got to take home a goodie bag with the pull ups potty dance DVD.

After the party, we met up with Jason at the new house. We packed up the truck with some of the kids' outside toys, including the house and basketball net, so they would have some toys to play with while we were working. They love playing outside. We met with a painter today that we hired to paint the rest of the house, including all of the trim work that we haven't been able to do. The painter will start on Wednesday and be finished on Friday. We were hoping to also have carpet installed in the entire house, but it looks like that may be a little more expensive than we thought. Even though this is the best time to put new carpet in (since the house is empty), we may have to wait on that. We are planning to get two more estimates next week, so we'll see. It looks like our moving day will be on March 19. Our kitchen counter tops are on back order and should be installed sometime at the end of the week of March 21, which means Jason probably won't get to see them. That also means we probably have to have the demo and plumbing done rather than doing it ourselves.

Over the past few weeks, we've met a few neighbors. It seems like people in this neighborhood are really nice and are happy to welcome new people. In all of the places we've lived, we've never really gotten to know our neighbors.

I will be happy when we are all moved in.

Day at the Park

This morning I took Zachary to the neurologist for the first time. Our pediatrician had referred him just as a precaution because of the seizures he's had. The neurologist wasn't worried at all because, like Kailani's, Zachary's seizures all came with fevers. Hopefully he'll grow out of it like Kailani seems to have. For now, we'll just have to be careful when he has a fever.
I had the day off, so we met up with Lisa (a friend from Hawaii) at Balboa Park. We got to meet her baby, Joseph, for the first time. It was so nice getting together. We hadn't seen each other in a few years. I ran into some of the moms from school. They wondered if a day off was the usual monthly "staff development." We were supposed to have a staff meeting today, but decided to give everyone the day off to recognize all of the hard work they've been doing lately. Only a few more weeks until spring break.

Español for Kailani

This morning I stopped by Heritage Elementary to drop off the enrollment paperwork for Kailani. I figured at least she'd be enrolled somewhere...
The secretary asked if I wanted to enroll Kailani in the dual immersion program. I hadn't even thought about that because Kailani isn't a Spanish speaker; however, the secretary said most of the kids in the program are not Spanish speakers. This program is to develop bilingualism and biliteracy. The program starts with 90% of the day in Spanish and 10% in English. Eventually, by 5th grade, the instruction is 50% Spanish and 50% English. For this reason, it is important for kids to stay in the program through the 6th grade.
After thinking about this for a while and talking it over with Jason, we decided to sign Kailani up for the dual immersion program. There are two dual immersion classes, an am and a pm, which are determined by a lottery in April or May. We're hoping for the am class, but we'll see.
One of the kids in our playgroup is in a dual immersion program and his mom said the program is great. I think this is a wonderful opportunity for Kailani to become bilingual. It will open up a lot of doors for her as she gets older.
Kailani will go to Heritage on March 17 for the kindergarten assessment and we'll go to orientation on July 19. The first day of school is July 20.

Public or Private?

I'm still having the debate with myself about keeping Kailani at KinderCare next year for kindergarten or enrolling her in the local public school. Tonight Kailani and I attended the Kindergarten Roundup informational meeting at KinderCare. The program sounds good. It's really just a continuation of what she's been doing now. I really want KinderCare to be a last resort though, if she doesn't get in to High Tech Elementary or if she doesn't get am kindergarten at Heritage Elementary because the cost of tuition is $242 per week at KinderCare. There were 5 or 6 parents at the meeting today and I am not sure how many will sign up. They all seemed to be having the same debate as me...they want KinderCare as an option if their child doesn't get am kindergarten at their local school. If there isn't 8 kids signed up for the kindergarten at KinderCare, they won't offer a class next year. They will also limit the class to 14 kids and they open up enrollment to other KinderCare centers in the area because ours is the only one with a kindergarten. Kailani said she really wants to go to KinderCare for kindergarten. Hopefully it doesn't fill up before I make my decision.
Today was the first day to enroll in the public school kindergarten. One of the moms at KinderCare said there were people camping out to be the first in line. She said at her local school there were 48 am kindergarten spots and she ended up being 50 in line. I wasn't able to go register Kailani for Heritage Elementary today because I had my administrator training all day. I plan to go by tomorrow morning on my way to work. The paperwork I have from Heritage Elementary states that am/pm kindergarten is determined by a lottery, so it wouldn't have mattered who was first in line. I guess the only issue would be if the total kindergarten enrollment was full already. In that case, Kailani would have to go to another school nearby. I didn't realize registering for kindergarten was this big of an ordeal. We'll see what happens in the morning.