SAT for my 5 year old son!

I had an SAT meeting the other day for my five year old son. No, he's not a genius preparing to take his college entrance exams early. SAT stands for Student Assistance Team. A group of school faculty and the parent meets to discuss a students possible retention.

My little guy is a "young" 5 year old kindergarten student who didn't have any preschool experience. While he's definitely shown improvement from the beginning of the year to the middle (More than doubled most of his scores, I'm so proud!) he's still not up to par with what they expect. He knows a lot of the information but apparently isn't mature enough to translate it into a written form.

I knew going at the beginning of the year he might have to repeat kindergarten. I was actually prepared to enroll him into preschool for this school year but his would be principal rejected the idea and said it would be best if he had two years of kindergarten. Also, we moved and his new school's preschool program was full.

My main concern is that he not feel like a "loser" because he's behind the rest of his class. I'm afraid that might result in self esteem issues that will hinder his education. I know that at this young age it's highly unlikely but it's still a possibility. I'll need to be sure to offer him extra encouragement and praise for his accomplishments. He really has come so far considering he has slight ADHD. He may not be a genius but he's one smart cookie (he likes to be called that, don't know why)!

Hernias and Hydroceles and Surgery - Oh my!

We had to take my 5 year old son to WVU Medical today to have a pre-op visit to fix his hydrocele. His left testicle is affected by fluid that drains down from his abdomen due to the inguinal tube that should have closed inutero or shortly after his birth. He isn't in any pain and it currently isn't causing any problems but it could in the future considering his intestine could slip through and cause a painful, dangerous hernia.

He's scheduled for surgery on March 5th and it will be performed by the same surgeon who did his surgery for pyloric stenosis when he was just 3 weeks old. I'm glad that he's previously had anesthesia with no adverse effects because that puts my mind at ease a bit. His dad has decided that he should be there and is taking off work to join my husband and I at the hospital on the day of his procedure. It's an outpatient surgery so he should be able to come home later that day. He'll be sore for a while, will have to be out of school for a few days and can't do anything strenuous for a couple weeks.

I'm sure I'm more nervous than he is. I know it's a fairly common procedure but just the same, he's my baby and it worries me. I trust the surgeon and I know he's one of the best. I'll be sure to update on his surgery and condition. Please, if you pray, say a little prayer that all goes well and keep us in your thoughts.

Disappointed in my fellow man

I went shopping today with my hubby and two youngest children. We saw my mother parked outside a local thrift shop and decided to stop and say hi. Inside the store, my husband sat our youngest inside a cart so I placed my purse inside the basket like I always do. I got distracted talking to my mother and chasing after my 2 year old daughter and when I looked up, hubby had taken my son out of the cart and was ready to leave. We were heading into the next store when I realized I didn't have my purse. At that point, I couldn't remember if I had left it inside the van or inside the thrift. My mom went to check the van and I went back into the thrift store. I checked where the carts were but the purse wasn't there. I saw an empty cart on the other side of the store and THERE was my purse. Phheewww! Was I relieved!

I went on over to the store next door where my hubby was waiting. As we got to the back of the store, I told him about how I thought he'd put the cart back with the others. He said he did. I then told him how I found the cart on the other side of the store. He insisted he put it back with the other carts so I thought I'd better check my wallet. Reaching into my purse I immediately noticed my wallet was upside down and hadn't been snapped. I knew something was up. My money was gone. My credit cards, cell phone and all were still there but all my cash was gone from the center of my wallet. In less than 5 minutes, someone came into the store, got the cart, saw that my purse was there, dug into my wallet and took my money, leaving my purse inside the cart. They even zipped my purse back up. How nice of them.

Now, I have to let you in on the ironic part. This person who stole my money made a huge mistake. They only took the ten dollars in ones I had in the center of my wallet. I had a 100 dollar bill rolled up inside the zippered compartment in back and it hadn't been touched. How sad for them that on the day they decided to steal something, they did a poor job of it. Not to mention, they were stealing money inside a Christian based thrift store. No wonder they did it in such a hurry, they probably 'felt' God watching them! I just tell myself they must have needed that money more than I do. I also believe in karma so I'm sure it will come back around to them. I'm just thankful they only got $10 and left my cell and cards alone.

Lead Law, Shmead Shmaw...

For the past several years I've supported my family mostly by selling children's clothing online. This past summer a bill was passed into law that is causing many people like me to have no choice but to close shop. The CPSIA has decided that our children are eating too much of their clothing and therefore have placed a lead law into effect which can land us with fines and even jail time.

I'm short on time so I'll save the specifics for another post. This is just a rant for now. I've read over this law and I can't honestly believe that anyone who voted and passed this through even read it. I think they heard "This is a law to protect our children from unsafe lead levels in toys, books, etc" and they thought if it's to protect children, how can it be bad? Well, what about the children whose parents are left without income because of the stiff penalties they face for operating their small businesses?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for protecting our children and as a mother, my heart goes out to any parent whose child has been hurt by lead poisoning. I simply don't think this law was well thought out and planned for. I've read that there's already a stay of enforcement for one year but in the meantime, what are we to do? I have inventory that I'm not able to sell because I can't afford to have each item tested. With the way our economy is, this is the last thing we need to worry about.

The thrift stores in my area have cleared out most of their children's clothing as well as toys and books. Think of the drop in sales they're going to face because of this. Also, with some people scraping to make ends meet, they rely on thrift stores and second hand clothing to keep their children clothed. What are they supposed to do? Let their children go naked? Oh and don't say they can get hand me downs from Freecycle or Craigslist. Nuh uh. This law makes it illegal to even GIVE the clothing away.

As I said earlier, I don't have time to really get indepth on the subject right now and the more I think about it, the more irritated I get so I'll save it for another time, maybe. I'm done ranting for now. I feel so much better, NOT!