Wishful Summer Thinking

 A post begun over a week ago. . . .

After two weeks in the WW-P Community Education summer programs, the kids are back to Princeton Friends School Camp next week.  They had a good time, but it seemed like quite a few of the program that we signed up for were cancelled and substitutions made.  Next year I think I want to take more time off during the summer so they can be home, hang out, go on day-trips and what not.

Fall seems like it's coming up quickly: Thea and Micah are registered for soccer, Thea is looking forward to the WWPSA's 3-on-3 tournament; I've got to register her for YingHua for the fall, check the school district's web site for school supply lists.

And even before this was posted, the week at Friends Camp finished and the kids are back to Community Education for one last week before returning once more to PFS for two final weeks.  Time is flying, I'm finding things other than keeping up with blogging to keep me busy.

It's almost August, time to start thinking about haircuts, finishing the remainder of the school supplies lists, starting to stalk the school district web site for teacher assignments, getting an appointment for Micah to get his ears flossed out, school physicals for both kids, and so on, and so on.

Maybe I've spent too much time at the quilt shops, where fall and Christmas fabrics are in abundance and everyone seems to be working on holiday table runners and tree skirts.  Not my thing, though some of the Hallowe'en fabrics are cute.

Meanwhile I haven't seen the Atlantic Ocean this year, I'm already planning for  Summer 2013 and taking more time off during the summer to enjoy it with the kids.

Two months. . .

until school starts. 

Thea volunteered that information today while we were out shopping.  To Thea, it seems like school is going  to be starting soon.  To me, it seems like there is still a lot of summer ahead of us.

Somehow there are people in the world who think that summer is somehow easier.  And it might be in terms of not having homework to deal with, but logistically, it may be more difficult.  It takes looking at my iPad to know where they will be each week for camp, learning the camps' schedules for snacks and lunches and whatnot.  With school, they have cafeteria accounts set up, and most days, I don't make lunches.  For camp, they need a lunch that will survive the heat (and yes, I do use re-usable freezer blocks.)

And in our lives, there is still is homework because we have the 35 page green workbook from Ying Hua Language School that must be finished and turned in on the first Sunday.

When the school year finally does get underway, it will be the first year that Micah stays put in one school for the entire day, and it will be Thea's first year at Millstone Upper Elementary School, which will be a much bigger school.  Wicoff School is the smallest of the district's lower elementary schools, which is nice because the staff and principal seem to know every student in the school but it will make the transition more interesting.

Ears. . . . .

Micah and I were in the family room, on the 4th of July, I think because I was sewing and he was finishing dinner, which is more of a process than a meal since he's a dining dawdler.

And while he was contemplating his dinner, he looked up and me and asked, "Mommy, will my ears always be this way?"

Oh, holy hell, really?  Today this comes up?  And what I want from him in the way of details as to why this is on his mind aren't forthcoming.

We've talked about this with him before, around the time he was having the atresia surgeries.  Micah was told that the atresia surgeries were not negotiable because we wanted him to have the best hearing possible.  But the microtia repair surgeries are up to him, and at that time he said, "No more surgeries, I don't want big ears."  He was four at the time.

(And then his father decided that it was finally time to have him circumcised, which will definitely give him something to talk to his future therapist about.  But that's a different story about parents who break promises.)

The issue of microtia has pretty much been way, way off the conversational radar since September 2010, which was when Micah had his last atresia surgery.

So I slapped on my parental verbal tap shoes and offered him a quick recap of the past, and told him that going to the doctor to talk about surgery to create bigger ears is entirely his choice. (I try to avoid the words "normal ears", we talk about big ears and little ears.)

He then asked if the surgery to have ears made that look like Thea's ears could be done in Dr. Choe's office instead of the hospital.  And when he was told that it would be at a hospital and it would also not be Dr. Choe performing the surgery, he would need to see a special doctor called a plastic surgeon.

Micah then said that if it couldn't be done by Dr. Choe in his office, he does not want big ears.

Issue closed, for now.