Dylan was helping me sort through some of her old 2T clothes for Ollie "The Chunk" yesterday. I had already taken out the dresses, but we still had to make a "possibly too girly but let's check with Aaron" pile. Aaron is not always the most decisive person, but he did seem to know this one. This led to a discussion with Dylan about how boys can wear girls clothes if they want to, but Daddy, for example, usually chooses not to. As far as you know. And stop bothering Mommy about her new men's socks, as they are awesome, although a little big.
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I went to a Rochester school fair today. Good lord. It is reminiscent of the med school match process, but in an even more byzantine lottery sort of way. There are 4-5 city schools that we are eligible for that are, like my new socks, awesome. There are three expeditionary learning schools, which, after talking to parents and teachers, are just as cool as I thought they would be. Aaaaaand the chances of getting into one are in the 35% or less range. There is a Spanish immersion one that is also great academically, but you have to pass some kind of language screening first and then I have no idea what percent of kids get in. There's a neighborhood-ish school that also seems really good, with a 58% acceptance rate. And then all the others seem like they're maybe fine but it's hard to tell and we wouldn't be that excited about any of them.
Attending this event has thus served only to make me more excited about schools with a not-great chance of Dylan getting to attend them. That was clear, flowing, English, if ever I've written it. But you get me. Other options are: a private school in the city that's at least cheaper than daycare with an educational approach I really like, moving to a neighboring suburb to guarantee excellent public education through high school, moving close enough to the one neighborhood school to guarantee acceptance, which is not an area with a lot of single family houses, or leave town. Figuring out how to rank everything seems very strategic, and I'm not entirely clear how it works.
I called the school district in one of the other cities we're looking at and they were like, well, move to a house, then register with the closest school once you get here. I was like, oh. Okay then.
I hate to be all competitive and invested in this, especially since none of the odds are that good and its KINDERGARTEN, but I have also had enough of years of Dylan being somewhere that's perfectly adequate but isn't anything special and not really our style, and I want her to have a good experience. I really like that a city school will have kids from all kinds of backgrounds, but some of them are pretty clearly focused on making productive members of society out of tough kids, which is not the main issue with this particular kid.
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Aaron and I went on the closest thing to a date we've been on since...oh yeah, hiking in September. I hate to count that since it made my toenails fall off AND Ollie was with us. Well, I hate to count this either, and you will see why. We went to the Y, dropped the kids off at the childcare there, sprinted away so we could pretend not to hear them crying, and went upstairs to the bikes with the virtual routes on them. You can see where the people on the bikes next to you are, virtually, if you do the same course, which means you can race them. If you're feeling competitive.
Aaron usually does these courses for part of his workout. I never do because I prefer my gym TV screen to have ma stories in lieu of digitized scenery. Arg. He is in GOOD SHAPE. I am spoiled from all those other years of our marriage where he was wedded to his chair and I could trounce him. I kept up for the first five miles. Even if I got a little behind I could catch up, although he did not like for me to be even a little bit ahead and would pass me immediately. The last mile he lost me, although I think I finished 5-10 seconds later. I don't usually...get my heart rate up that high, during your average workout.
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