getting older and tough decisions.

Last Tuesday I celebrated my 37th birthday. I was lucky this year because my mom decided she wanted to come up by herself, spend some time together and then watch the kids so Mike and I could go out. She left around three to take everyone to see the Smurfs movie. I had about three and a half hours to myself before Mike got home from work. What did I do with those glorious hours? Watched bad movies on Netflix. Why didn't I take a nap? No idea. Anyway, we had a nice time at the Ale House. At first, we pretended we were on a first date...asking questions like "Where are you from originally?" and telling stories about our childhoods (even though we've both heard them a million times). After dinner we moved outside to the patio for the beer portion of our evening. There we played "What's their story?" We go around the bar and make up little stories about the people. Of course, the more outrageous the better. It always gets us laughing. I think 37 is going to be a good year.

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In other, more serious, news we had to make a tough decision about Helen and school. She had a rough time in second grade last year. I don't know if it was because it was a new school, she didn't mesh with the teacher or the material was just difficult for her. She began the year a little behind grade level which is normal after coming off summer vacation. However, she consistently stayed below grade level and no matter how much we worked with her, she basically made no progress on her achievement tests. At the end of the year we met with the principal who suggested we retain her, but that if we worked with her more over the summer, they would reassess her before schools starts to see if she would be ready for third grade. We ended up enrolling her in the reading program at Sylvan Learning Center and did some additional work at home. In six weeks she made a tremendous amount of progress...some areas she was beyond an incoming third grader and other areas she was about a middle-of-the-year second grader. The assessments at the school showed the same results. So what the decision boiled down to was: move her to third grade where she would be clawing her way through or have her stay in second grade where she would be most likely to succeed, even be in the top of her class according to her teacher. We opted to stay in second grade because we felt that having that feeling of accomplishment and confidence in doing well would benefit Helen so much more than just being in the grade she's "supposed" to be in. It was difficult for all of us, but in the end I think we did the right thing. The girl is gonna be alright.