Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Everything is awful, and i'm being a bit overly dramatic, probably.



Today has been kind of a terrible day, and i am sad. 

Houston called this morning. He was knocked over (accidentally) during gym class and smashed his head on the floor, so he had a headache. Could he come home? No. He called back half an hour later: he had thrown up. I went and got him, and then called the doctor's office just to make sure that i didn't need to worry. The nurse was very nice and gave me a whole list of things to watch for (bleeding from the ears, confusion, and differently dilated pupils, for example), including "If he stops throwing up and then starts throwing up again after a long time." 

So i parked him on the couch, where he moaned quietly for a while. Eventually, to get his mind off his headache, i introduced him to Sherlock. He was iffy about wanting to watch until i told him that some of it was written by one of the guys who also writes for Doctor Who, and then he was all in. He really liked it...although i think he didn't understand quite a lot. 

Anyhow. He was fine all day - laughing, playing, headache which got more mild as the day went on. Until just before bedtime, when he totally threw up again. I called the on-call pediatrician (feeling guilty as i did so), and he was all, "Right. How bad does his head hurt now?" Houston: "Really, really bad." Doctor: "Scale of 1-10?" Houston: "3." Doctor: "So...he's kind of a tough guy, then? Okay, give him Tylenol, wake him up a couple of times in the middle of the night to check his pupils, and if anything else happens, bring him to the ER at the Children's Hospital." 

So. In the middle of the night, i'll have to wake up the un-wakeable boy to look at his eyeballs and make sure that he's not confused. Yay.

Meanwhile.

In our city, there's "Zoo School," which is only for 6th graders for one year. They get to go to school at the zoo, and it sounds awesome. Katrina applied, and we finally got the letter today. Not accepted.

I am SO disappointed. I'm so much more disappointed than i expected to be. The thing is, she's been talking about Zoo School for years - though as it's gotten closer, she's experienced more of the nervous, "But what about...." syndrome that we kind of expect from Katrina. She doesn't like change or decisions.

The thing is, they make the decision of who gets to go based entirely on the standardized test scores. The tests that Katrina always does poorly on. She's so much better in school than the stupid test shows. She consistently gets really good grades and she's in advanced math. One of the girls in her class DID get in to Zoo School, and i know that Katrina gets better grades than she does AND the other girl is in the lower math class. I just want to yell, "NOT FAIR!" 

So. We can appeal. We're planning to appeal. But just in case, i sent her teacher an email this afternoon: 

My question is this: My husband and I think that she's smarter than she looks on the test, and that she'd do awesome at zoo school because she works REALLY HARD in school. But we're a little bit biased too, so before i call them and appeal and am all, "My special snowflake deserves a chance!" I thought I'd ask you your opinion. Do YOU think that Katrina's test score accurately reflects where she is and she'd honestly be in over her head there? I don't want to set her up for failure.

Anyhow. I am really sad. I told Katrina she didn't get in, and her response was, "Oh. Well, that's okay, i guess." (Also, she doesn't know yet that three of her best friends DID get in, and that might make her a lot more disappointed. Or not.)

And, just in case appealing doesn't change anything and she doesn't get to go: These are the things that would be good about staying where she is: Sports start in middle school, and she's mentioned wanting to try track and maybe other sports. She could continue being in band. Transportation would be easier....

Meanwhile.

Zane has a very loose tooth. He wants attention for that. 

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