Chicago Chronicles: Forget me not-summer lovin'

So I've had some memory issues lately. The worst was my debit card PIN and the most recent my blogger password. I find it frustrating. I did eventually remember by debit card PIN but not alot of other things. I thought this was supposed to happen at a much older age! Ugh.

Anyhow, we've had alot going on around here. Today is the last day of summer for us. In the morning it's back to year 2 of Pre-K since the state of Illinois says Ella can't start Kindergarten because her birthday is 28 days too late. This hotly debated topic (at least in Chicago it is) has been close to our heart lately. The Illinois law is currently being challenged but won't come back for a vote until January I believe. It is feasible to say that the state should have some say in when a child must go to school, but alot of state's have much broader timeline's (i.e. age 5 by end of calendar year, etc.) Then the flip-side of the coin called "red-shirting" is the parents not enrolling their children who do turn age 5 by the required date. To them I say: How unfair to me. But good for you. It is sad that the state, who presumably has no knowledge of my child's school-readiness, mandates school start dates rather than the parents who know their child. As to the unfairness of red-shirting, I commend parents for not starting their August 29th birthday child if they know they're just not ready--but it frustrates me that I can't do the flip side of that with a September 29th birthday and put my daughter where she belongs. So I'll save the rest for the Chicago northside parents network message board where other's share our frustration....and here's to another year of "really, she's not even five yet--I thought she was at least seven!"

Our summer has been filled with alot of visitors, which we love! And alot of summer Chicago fun.

Nicholas keeps me very busy and is seeking independence in all ways right now. He also can't seem to keep his mouth safe. We're hoping his front tooth will make it for the next five years or so but it seems to constantly get injured. Usually when he wakes up the first thing he says is: "Truck? Bus? Plane?" Meaning do we hear any of those things right now. He has a huge fascination with large mechanical vehicles. He goes absolutely wild over trash trucks, planes, trains, buses, delivery trucks, fire trucks, etc. Thank goodness we live in the city! He is very well rounded though and also loves to dance in his sister's fuchsia tutu and wear my high heels around the house. And most notably Nicholas has now been medication free for almost one month. We met with his Urologist and got permission to try it without the meds. So far so good and we are thrilled and thank God for his health.

Ella has been growing taller and taller and is always drawing in her sketchbook. She has turned into quite the actress and we even sent her to Theatre camp because of her interest. This was a week called the "Enchanted Musical Forest" and she was in heaven. Singing, dancing, acting all the time culminating in a show on Friday for us to attend. They did a mini-version of the title song from Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods with full choreography and a few other Theatre games. The funniest thing to me is that I told Ella I had actually played in the musical Into the Woods when I was in college and she became star-struck over Mama for a brief moment. Ella also attended a week of VBS at the Moody Church which was over the top in all ways. It's so nice that they welcome anyone to attend since our very small church could never put on such a great kids program! Nicholas enjoyed getting his "sticker" (special visitor nametag) every morning when we signed her in to VBS. By day 3 he asked for it when we walked in the lobby. Too cute. Ella has also been continuing to learn how to read. It's amazing to me how well she does, and funny to think that's how we all started something that we do without thinking about now. And finally, today was historical. Ella had her very first haircut. Yes, at almost five years old. She still wants long hair but it needed to be trimmed, so I did the honors tonight and we put the first piece in her baby keepsake box! Remember, it took a long time to grow those golden tresses. (just look at Nicholas if you need a reminder!)

Other things we did this summer: Swimming lessons for Ella, zoo, Field Museum, Aquarium, Beach, Grant Park Orchestra concerts at Millennium park, Art Institute Family nights, road trip to Minneapolis for 4th ofJuly, alot of grilling and alfresco dining on the deck, playground palooza, Chicago History Museum, Dairy Farm trip, and stoopin' with sidewalk chalk and bubbles, water taxi.

Overnight Visitors we've had this summer (let's start in April since we moved here): #1: Jeff & Marion of St. Louis, #2: Jeff, Cheryl, Tori, Jin of Minneapolis #3: Faith, Jesse, Caelin, Christine, of Scottsdale #4: Karen & Ibsen of Caracas Venezuela #5: Nana & Pa of Oak Hills, CA #6: Andrew and Jackie of New Orleans . I think that's it. Ha! So really, you can see it is o.k. to come visit us!