Queued up for the evening.
First time for the kiddos. She’s not even in Wonderland and their already enthralled.
Back at the pool. 📷
Poolside.
The kiddos and their cousins shut it down. 📷
O Vere Beate Nox 📷
Easter Vigil at his request. Deo Gratias.
When you want to hangout with dad but didn’t have nap time today. 📷
When mommy walks away. 📷
First MLB game for the bid kiddo at Spring Training.
We got better seats than we deserved, I’ll tell ya that much.
Oh, and the starting pitcher signed his ball.
Baseball is back, folks. ⚾️
⚾️ My original seat locations for Angels spring training were taken already—so the ticketing office applied my credit to front row behind the dugout for Saturday. And they dropped prices, so I even got a partial refund.
Today, I’m one of several chaperones for my kindergartner’s first field trip.
Off to see the The Hungry Caterpillar as a play. 📷
First time inside Chik-fil-A since the before times. 🐓📷
Needless to say, the kiddo was very happy about it.
The audacity of a school administrator trying to end run around parents who, respectively, have a PhD and an MSW and who know the rules at least as well as they do is something. I don’t know if I’m appalled at the behavior or impressed at the bravado.
Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Kushner
A quick family photo after the Mass. (Note the water all over one of the kiddo’s shirt. He totally wasn’t playing in the fountain.)
When your son asks you to wear a tie “just because,” you put on that tie. Like a boss.
She loves her biggest brother.
(Taken at Mass—a rare exception to my no phone policy at church.)
Kids soccer, yet again.
It was a warmer start to our weekend soccer games than last week when the reported 55 degrees was warmer than it felt. This week is quintessential Arizona winter. Highs in the 60s, sunny.
Little brother had the first game. He loves it more and more each week. I didn’t get any shots of the big kiddo’s game but he also did well.
The difficulty now is the two babies are more mobile. Number 3 wants to play soccer so so bad. Baby sister loves running around. And those are both great but it makes it harder to focus on the kids when they’re playing.
I’m not ready for her to be a beautiful toddler. But she runs ahead to her future anyway.
📷: the inestimable Mrs. Perez
Back at it for another season ⚽️
First practice for the kiddos today.
Afternoon walk with the kids at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum
First Steps
While talking with my wife about yesterday’s awful day for the kindergartner, the baby decided to join the world of bipedalism. Two steps between mom and I. Then stumbled—a lot. A lunge and fall toward dad. Then more crawling back and forth. Two steps to mom. Three steps to dad.
At first she was surprised with herself. Then, she couldn’t do it anymore because she was psyching herself out at the accomplishment. We’re about 4 days shy of 11 months. Not the earliest of the bunch, but still, not half bad.
Venting
My kindergartner was denied an opportunity to sing at his school’s winter recital today. He’s been struggling with anxiety since school began to the point that we’ve even had some assessments done by the school. We have a behavior plan in place for him. He does well some days, not so much on others. This morning was one of those “not so much” days. But what bothers me is that the school framed their decision about avoiding embarrassment “for him” or us, as parents, but pointed to his outbursts in a negative light as justification for their decision. We weren’t consulted, which makes me feel like they just didn’t want him there. If it was about avoiding embarrassment for us or him, they should have asked us what we thought—and not a mere two hours before he was supposed to show up for final rehearsal.
When I spoke with the headmaster (equivalent to a principal), the consistent theme conveyed was that this was punishment for his behavior because willful bad behavior has consequences. (Which, I agree, it does.) But (a) we’re talking about a kindergartner, and (b) a kindergartner with anxiety. My biggest concern right now is that all the self-confidence he gained over these last few months will be lost because he’s been sobbing off-and-on since we told him he couldn’t perform.[^ We ended up doing our own performance at home with hot chocolate. He nailed every song without music and only needed help on one verse of the lyrics. I’m convinced he would have done great at the concert.] I think what bothers me most is that the school is trying to have it both ways: they want to punish him for his outbursts but they also want to frame it as though they are trying to do us a solid without ever actually asking what we think our kid is capable of doing.
E.g., if it is really about his behavior, they need to do more documentation, and we should re-consider his anxiety assessment from a few weeks ago. If it is about the anxiety and embarrassment, then his behavior today—which was the apparently last straw in their decision—shouldn’t have been a factor.[^ Honestly, I think maybe they don’t want him there. It’s a charter school, so diverting resources to kids like him takes away from the mission, mission, I’d like to say I support and in which I believe. I did chose to send him there after all.]
Generally I’m opposed to airing one’s dirty laundry on social media. But, hey, my Micro following isn’t that popular (vs, e.g., my Twitter and Facebook). And this is more of a personal record of my feelings than anything else. I’m sure a good night sleep will help me sort though what I think, and feel, about the whole debacle.