Boys' first day of school (sorta); a wedding, a hangover and other tidbits

Today the boys had their orientation /first day at their new school!

We met their new teacher, toured their beautiful classrooms, watched as they selected cubbies, played with toys, did some spin art, and met new friends. They also saw their friend Marcus, and fell right in together, like old times.

This is the multi-purpose room. We were waiting to go up and tour their classrooms.

Their new teacher, Mr. Valle.

The Three Amigos. That's Marcus - in the stylin' hat.

Making spin art.

Their masterpieces! (And my toes.)

Guys - it is such a nice building, with all the things you think of when you imagine what a pre-school should look like. I got all teary thinking about how blessed we are to be able to provide this kind of place for our kids - and about how this is the kind of school ALL kids deserve. I don't know how the years will go -- or even this year -- but I can tell you that I really felt good when I left there today.


This week is another crazy week, with weird schedules and introducing the new aftercare sitter to the routine, so I'm not completely out of the "I need a Xanax" woods just yet. But I'm getting there.

Speaking of the new aftercare person, Friday was officially Michelle's last day with us, after four years of being a total member of our family. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! :-(
 

We'll miss you, Mi-Mi!

I am so sad about it. She was a Godsend, truly. I don't know what we're going to do without her. We made a special dinner for her, and gave her flowers and a balloon, and we had chocolate cake to celebrate our time with her. We were all really sad (but cake helps!) and we're determined that Michelle will not be gone for long. We'll still have her come hang out with the kids for some date nights, etc. And she wants us to Skype with her from time to time, too. I love it that she loves my kids so much, especially because they ADORE her. So, for us, it's just see you later, Michelle, and not good-bye. You can't get rid of us that fast!

This weekend, as a matter of fact, we would have used her to go to my friend Andrea's wedding, but we decided to let them stay with my parents overnight so that we could enjoy the wedding and not have to get up at the crack of dawn the next day.

Andrea's wedding was fabulous! She looked beautiful, but she's asked us not to share photos of her, so I won't. Just trust me when I say her dress was gorgeous! And it was great to get together with her and so many friends and drink and eat and cut-up and dance the night away. We had so much fun!!

"Ussie" with my girls Kelly and Shreya

Me and my sweetpea. Check him out in his new tux -- and 35 lbs. lighter! I hate him.

Why am I so short? I blame my parents.

The fellas, stylin'!

By the end of the night, women were bringing out bottles upon bottles of spirits, with fireworks coming out the top. Yes, it was that kind of night.

I might have done a little too much cutting up (ahem) because the next morning, Lester and I both needed this -- in copious amounts.

But it was great to get to go out to brunch with my sweetie and ease into the day. Many thanks to my Mom and Dad for watching the Davis crazies for us! We love you!

Switching schools

OK folks, so it has now been two full weeks since my last post. That is the longest I have gone without blogging since I began this venture (other than when I was newly home from the hospital with Clair and not sure what time of day it was or if I was going to throw myself off the roof of my house.)

I'm leaving for Portland, Maine tonight with my two big bosses for client meetings, so I am really just waiting to head to the airport, which means I have a few minutes of "down" time and can actually blog! Now is as good a time as any, I suppose, to get out the post I've been trying to write about why we're switching the boys to a new school.

There are soooo many reasons, the two biggest ones being: Our family experiences, and racism in America.

 I'll just start with one reason here -- our family experiences -- and get to racism -- a huge and hairy post - another time.

Here goes.

Lester and I are both fans of and products of public schools. I covered public schools as an education reporter for years. My mother and sister are public school employees. I sit on the board of a public charter school. But in Baltimore, the public schools are CRAP. Crap with a capital horrible. There are a few schools that are OK, but you have to live in those zoned areas to go to them. And as you can tell from my many rantings about how much I want to get out of our neighborhood, we don't live in those zones. The charters are another option, but there's a lottery, so no guarantee, and also most are still fairly newish. So their track records are still gelling. Our options, then, are to move or go private.

Moving would make the most sense, honestly. We'd get out of our neighborhood into a better one, with a yard and neighbors our kids could grow up with. And, ostensibly, the schools in the neighborhood we moved to would be much better. But we're in no position to move right now, because of the darn housing market crash. Our house is a million thousand dollars under water. We couldn't sell this house without taking a huge loss. We don't expect that to change anytime soon, so when we do move, we'll be renting, I think. That's another story altogether.

But the biggest reason we chose private has to do with our family situations. Lester and I both come from families where we have witnessed firsthand the damage that can be done when kids are sucked into a peer group that is going nowhere fast. Of my four siblings, only one went to college. The others, to put it bluntly, are drains on my parents, even though all are adults with children of their own. With two educated, loving, present parents in their lives -- they still fell victim to the mediocre public school education in our going-downhill neighborhood. They were more concerned about being "cool" than preparing for the future. Our parents were (and are still) wonderful, but they have no network. So when the time came for my siblings to outgrow their immaturity and make up for lost time, their windows had closed and my parents had no friends in solid places to help them. I believe my parents will go to their graves taking care of my grown siblings. And my siblings' kids will repeat this cycle. It is a hard, hard thing to say this. I love my siblings dearly. I would do almost anything for them, and their kids especially. But the truth is, bad neighborhood + mediocre education equals not much of a life for any of them. (Aside from my baby sister, who is doing quite well.)

I don't want that for my kids.

In Lester's case, his family has even fewer examples of "success." But the one who stands out most is his cousin Joshua, who was like a brother to him. I remember how proud Lester was the day we dropped Joshua off at college in West Virginia (notice it was me and Lester), after spending hours and hundreds buying him a foot locker, a refrigerator, shower shoes and tons of packs of Ramen noodles.

Lester thought Joshua had beat the odds. With Lester's love and attention and sacrifice, Joshua had made it to college. But the pull of the old neighborhood -- and his old friends -- was too much for Joshua. Over a break in his freshman year, while hanging out in a city basketball park, Joshua was shot in the back of the head and died.

The neighborhood and the peer group were, quite literally, the death of that promising young man.

We have not really gotten over it. We likely never will.

Lester and I are not naive enough to believe that we can protect our children from making bad choices or being attracted to the wrong people. And we're certainly not naive enough to believe that private schools aren't FULL of some of the "wrong" people. But we hope that we can try to make a difference somehow by sending them to this very sweet Quaker school -- with its emphasis on peace, and community.

We hope we can protect them even just a little bit more than we could if we sent them to the city's public schools.

There's more -- but I have to run! Gotta go to the airport!