Addenbrooke Classical Academy
Greetings to everyone.
January is the time of year, at least in Colorado, when you scramble and compete for a place in a school for the next school year.
We have not had much difficulty in the past. Xavier got into Waterstone Preschool four years ago when they added a new Friday class offering. We've kept up on keeping him signed up every January since.
This year, however, marks Xavier's last year with Waterstone. The school, teachers and curriculum have served Xavier well. He is further ahead of Rebecca and I when we were his age. But, there are no more preschool classes for Xavier to advance to. It's Kindergarten for Xavier next year, either at Waterstone or somewhere else.
Both Rebecca and I have felt strongly that Waterstone is not the Kindergarten for Xavier. We had in our sights a K through 12 charter school not too far from us.
We toured it and attended the parents' inquiry meeting two years ago. We liked what we learned. It offers a classical education. They still teach cursive writing, something public schools no longer do. It has a well-structured learning program, which Xavier will do well in. We liked the educational philosophy, and the fact it's practically in our backyard.
The problem for us was admission. It's done by lottery and seats in the school are filling up. We had two years at least before we could apply. Would there be space for Xavier when he was ready?
So, for the last two years, when we passed the school, we prayed over it, proclaiming it would be Xavier's next school.
In early January, we gathered up all the necessary documentation and filled out all the paperwork and put in our application the morning enrollment opened. Rebecca and I walked the paperwork into the main office.
I felt we would get in, but still I thought of a Plan B. Rebecca felt similarly. But, there was no Plan B we liked. The public elementary school we are zoned for did not appeal to us. However, that was our Plan B. We did not pursue it at all, however.
We were supposed to hear from the school about Xavier's acceptance by the end of January. We did not hear from them. Things seemed grim. Did we not get in on the first lottery? Will we need to try for the second one?
Sitting at lunch, we decided to call. Perhaps they had the wrong phone number or email address with which to contact us.
Rebecca got hold of the woman with all the information. She told Rebecca, "You are next on my list to call." Listening in on the conversation, I wondered "is that good or bad," but I held out hope.
Xavier was accepted. He won the lottery! Rebecca and I thanked God for His goodness.
So, where will Xavier attend school next year? If you've read the title of this entry, you already know: Addenbrooke Classical Academy.
After Christmas Sale
Greetings to everyone.
A few days ago, I took Xavier in to meet his new pediatrician. With Rebecca on an ADOS tour, our insurance changed and we had to find a new GP doctor for Xavier for the duration of Rebecca's tour.
The meeting with the pediatrician lasted less than fifteen minutes (it was just a meet-and-greet to establish care, after all), but long enough to discover Xavier had an ear infection.
With prescription in hand, Xavier and I headed for King Soopers to get his allotment of Amoxicillin.
Rather than sit in the chairs and wait, Xavier and I wandered the aisles. We came to the seasonal aisle and found all the Christmas items marked with impressive discounts. King's really wanted the space for Valentine's Day I suspect.
The shelves were still surprisingly full, but I did not find too much of interest (I was looking for deals on Christmas-themed wrapping paper).
Xavier, however, found something of interest! He called me over. When I saw what excited him, I flashed back to my own childhood to live Xavier's excitement all over again. Somehow, I knew we'd be walking out of the store with one (unless the price was too high).
I could not use price as an excuse. The box had a big red sticker on it stating 70% off. Even with such a large discount, it still cost twice as much as the Amoxicillin, but who could say "no" to such a $10 expenditure?
It took over an hour to build it, much of that time was applying the decals. Xavier is having a lot of fun with it. And, really, who wouldn't?
Merry Christmas, 2017!
Greetings, Merry Christmas to all!
Christ is Born!
As these before and after pictures show, we celebrated a wonderful Christmas this year.
For both Rebecca and I, this was the first Christmas in a long time (and certainly since we two met) that we both truly enjoyed. As we discussed it, we decided it's the first time we were not running from place to place, no pressure on the feast, and a continuous day not broken up in the midnight and mid morning hours of church services.
This year Rebecca and I found a church we both can call a home church; even Xavier enjoys attending church. This unification in our family brought, I think, much of the peace we felt this year.
We had planned on making the 10:00 AM service today, but late yesterday decided to take in the 7:00 PM Christmas Eve service instead. That gave us a slower moving Christmas Day, and allowed us to focus more on the purpose and worship of Christmas, rather than on getting here on time, getting there on time, etc.
Xavier started the day very early, and twice. Once at midnight and again at 3:00 AM. Excitement did not wake him these times, but congestion. At 3:00, we turned off the humidifier and he came to bed with Mom and Dad. He did not get up until 8:00 AM. This gave we parents some time to ourselves, a nice Christmas present in its own right.
When he did get up, the tree's lights shined brightly and the lights in the evergreen on the mantle shone clear, and the stocking were filled! He was excited.
Yesterday, he was concerned Santa would not fill his stocking because he thought he had been a bad boy. We still do not know where he picked up this thinking; perhaps at school, perhaps he watched Santa Clause is Coming to Town one too many times. Try as we might, we could not convince him his behavior had been "good" and not "bad".
Aunt Chelle drove down from Fort Collins. While we waited for her, we opened stockings. Xavier has never gotten so excited over stockings.
This year he turned the corner on getting it and anticipating stockings and gifts. He got into shopping, even picking out stocking stuffers and other gifts for people. He picked up a turkey baster for Rebecca as a gift; he explained to me "Mama can use this when she cooks." With thought like that, how could I tell him "she already has one"?
He helped wrapping presents, even several of his own (though he did not know that at the time). I think what he really liked was pulling and ripping the tape from the dispenser and applying it to the wrapping paper.
Xavier dug into his stockings (Xavier had two) with gusto, excited by everything he pulled out, even more excited when he continued to discover the stockings held more than he thought. He even watched excitedly as Mama and Daddy opened their stockings.
We decided to call Grandpa Danny before he got too far into his day of celebration. While on the phone, Xavier opened his gifts from Grandpa Danny. Danny gave Xavier a pair of robotic toys and a tool belt with tools. Xavier received both enthusiastically.
Later on in the day, Grandpa Bill arrived for dinner. He brought Xavier a gift as well. It was Xavier's first radio-controlled car (OK, technically, it is infrared controlled). Xavier overflowed with excitement and impatiently bothered us until we got the double A's installed in the remote control.
After Grandpa Danny, we rang up Grandma Penny and let Xavier tear into her gift to him. Grandma Penny always gets Xavier a big Tonka truck, and this year she sent him a front-end loader, something he desperately needed.
Next, we had the annual get Aunt Kathy working on Skype call. We're getting better at this, and it only took 30 minutes this year to get things going. Kathy sent Xavier more TinkerToys.
This excited Xavier. He had to empty the bag of new Tinker Toys into his barrel. After, we had to break down every one of his Tinker Toy structures, including the one he said only yesterday that he never wanted to take apart. The reason for this: Xavier wanted to see if he had enough Tinker Toys to "overfill" (his term) the barrel.
Aunt Chelle gave Xavier two books, one being the sequel to the book which themed Xavier's fourth birthday: Dragons Love Tacos 2: the Sequel. At bed time, we read that book four times and the second book Aunt Chelle gave him we read twice.
At last, we came to the big gift, the glory gift, the gift he has been asking for since early summer, the gift that would eclipse all others, leaving these others as distant memories in its light: the gift from his parents.
Success! We, the parents, gave the glory gift! Or so we thought. Xavier played with the Bruder cement truck to the exclusion of all else. A few hours later, Grandpa Bill would bring a remote controlled Lightning McQueen, snatching away the glory from us completely!
After dinner, and at Xavier's persistent pestering, he and Dad built the robotic spider Grandpa Danny had sent, a feat which took about an hour and a half. Once the spider was up and running, it was hard to say which grandpa stole the glory, Grandpa Bill with his remote controlled car, or Grandpa Danny with the robotic spider. Likely, they both share the glory stealing; both granddads did very well this year in gifting Xavier with what rev's his engine.
Dad got the 1955 SciFi movie Tarantula as one of his gifts this year. As it played on the TV in Middle Earth, Xavier acted out scenes having his own robotic spider chasing cars just like in the movie.
Merry Christmas 2017!