Joining the Y!

I had an enlightened discussion with the husband last night about my inability to get physical activity in. Every time I do want to go anywhere, my five-year-old begins to sob if he cannot go with. This is the case whether I'm going off on a shoot, to the store, or yes, to workout. I end up taking him with because I can't bear to see him sad -- except I CANNOT bring him to shoots, as those clients are paying for my quality, undivided time.

I brought up the idea of joining "The Y" (YMCA, apparently they just go by "The Y" in this time and age), because I had heard that they have an income-based membership, where you will pay less based on your income for household size. Now, as you all know, we have one person working (me) and 3 kids, so that makes us a party of five. For a party of five and with our income, we would be looking at 70 or 80% off the monthly membership of $65. That is a darn good deal!

The center we would be going to is really new -- it opened up just a few years ago. It has an indoor track (this is HUGE!! I used to walk in college at the indoor track located at the University and have lamented in the past how in the winter, I'm basically stuck. I have to either go out in the ice and snow and freeze my buns off with 3 kids in tow -- not an easy feat -- or go to the lame ass mall and it's tiny and smells like greasy food. Neither of those are appealing). They have a nice pool and the kids LOVE to swim so we will have a place to take them to burn off some energy and have fun. I also am wanting to get back into swimming, as I grew up as a "summer swim team" girl, and seriously -- swimming laps is the best exercise out there. DH also likes to swim. The center also has a [free] childcare center so that we can have the option of dropping them off there should we both want to workout at the same time. Another thought my bestie at work brought up is that if DH so desires, he could actually go to The Y while I'm at work and workout, if he needs a break from the kids (some days, he really does).

I am so happy! First I have to get my appliaction in to financial assistance there, but it's all filled out and ready to go.

Now, I have to find a swimsuit that is suitable for lap swimming as my bikinis will not really cut it (swimming laps will cause the bottoms to fall off -- also something I really don't want to do. I had a really neat Nike 2 piece made for competitive swimming when I was younger so I'm going to look for something sporty like that). I'll get DH a Speedo (kidding!). :)

Andrew's first day at pre-school (year 2)

Wow!! I am so happy right now. Yesterday, I called his teacher, "Mrs. W.", to get an update on his first day. She said, "I was just about to email you. He was amazing! He got to be the leader because he had been through it all before, and he did very well. Last year, he didn't want to do things in front of people, and today, despite the fact that there were all new faces in the classroom, he did everything! I had him go get his backpack out of his locker at the end of the day, then set it down, then I asked him to go get his mail out of his box, and he did that too. He was a different kid! He asked for a sticker at the end of the day [last year, we had this whole system where if he complied with all of the areas, he would get a sticker or a stamp on each of the tasks], and I told him that I didn't think we needed to do that this year."

Wow.

I am so glad I held him and had him do a second year of pre-k, because he will hopefully be ready for kindergarten next year. I hope I'm not counting my chickens before they're hatched (to use the old cliche), but I am really hopeful.

The only thing we need to figure out is the bus schedule. The original time they gave me for him to be picked up is 10:53. Class for him doesn't start until noon. As soon as I told Mrs. W, she said, "oh, that's not going to work. No kid should have to sit on the bus for an hour, and Andrew's day will be over before it even begins." I agree. Plus, we live a mere hop, skip, and a jump away from school (but are on the bus route because of the busy road that leads to the school). If we had a second vehicle for Daddy, that wouldn't be a huge deal and he technically could bike him to school for now, but that would involve either shoving 3 kids in a bike trailer meant for two, or connecting the tagalong to the trailer so he has a Daddy choo-choo ride. I don't know. Mrs. W. said not to panic and just to give it a few weeks and hopefully they will figure out a different time. She said there's always the insanity of the buses at the beginning of a school year.

I will keep you all posted on his school progress. He still has his evaluation scheduled for 10/24 (this is the sensory assessment).

My big boy!