What an exhausting month - Nanny starts soon - Musings on my children

This past month has been a long one. I think I've been the busiest I've ever been at work for the past few weeks. This is good in that it is never boring, though I do worry about things falling through the cracks. I did a trial (admin) this past week - that was just a day, but it wa a long day and it required plenty of prep. And that was just one small part of the week. I am getting the hang of that, though. I've now handled five hearings like that on my own, as well as at least that many with someone else, and I am starting to have fun with it.

Next monday, in two days, our nanny starts. My wife is nervous about that, but I think it will be fine. It is just something new. It is very expensive, but then so was day care (this is just more expensive). The paperwork, the taxes, payroll stuff, is annoying. I still haven't gotten it all set up - the last step, doing an actual payroll, I can't just try out before I have something real to run, so I am going to have to figure out the last steps with the first paycheck. I'm sure it will be fine - it isn't rocket science, but I want to get it right.

My daughter turns 4 this month, which is a big milestone. She's grown so much and can do so much now. She can do her alphabet. She can spell her name (and other things). She can type on the computer, use a mouse, even play Diablo II, though for her, that consists mostly of buying and drinking potions and running around town summoning birds to chase her around (with her druid). She says she's too afraid to go out where the monsters are, but she likes when I'm in the game with her and hang around town with her. It amazes me just how much of the functionality she figured out on her own. I never showed her how to do half of the stuff she does in the game - I didn't even know her druid could summon birds - but she figured it out. I guess she isn't a baby anymore.

My son is a year and a half this month. He's also grown so much. Grandma has been here helping us out since the end of May, but she leaves in a week (and thus the nanny starts). He's the reason we have a nanny. We got a final round of checks with a specalist and determined that he is not allergic to anything and that his health problems were just caused by serial sickness at day care, something that some kids get and just can't handle well. So he can't go back to day care. And if he's home, financially, we have to have our daughter home, too. I can't say that upsets me, though. My daughter loves her friends in day care, but she'll start kindergarten in a year and have friends there, and I just can't stomach her hearing any more Jesus brainwashing at her day care. I figured when she was really little, none of it would have stuck, but when she started coming home talking about certain stuff (and I even heard her say a stupid prayer over a meal once), that was enough for me. So for my son's physical health and both of my children's mental health, I'm glad to have them at home. It will also be much more convenient - it was quite a major operation to get them both up, dressed, and packed into the car, and into day care each morning, and then it was another major operation to get them both home.

Once grandma leaves, it will fall to me most evenings to get them both fed and bathed and into bed. (Right now, grandma pretty much has my son attached at the hip, which means I usually only have to take care of my daughter's baths, etc in the evenings). I admit I've been taking good advantage of that in that I play with my daughter a lot in the evenings right now. I do feel sometimes like I need to spend more time with my son, but he is usually in bed much earlier for the night, between 7 and 8 ideally. And my daughter can be so demanding of attention. It will be ... interesting ... to deal with them together without grandma. My daughter can be a bit rough with him. But they can also play well together when she isn't, well, acting her age.

I also find I get up early in the morning to just have a little time to myself.

I am both excited and worried about my daughter starting school next year. She seems so little still, and yet she's grown so much. She will have another year on her before then, which I'm sure will make a big difference. I already called the school district to see what I needed to do. There are a bunch of forms you need to fill out - I never realized there was all this preparation. I guess all of it was done for me long before I was aware of such things. I just thought you showed up at school and they knew you were coming. But of course, they could only do that if someone told them. So I was told that I can call again next February for information about a parent orientation. I want to go check out the elementary school, but I guess I can wait until then. I hope my daughter will do well in school. I was a total nerd, but at least I learned well.

I hope she gets good friends. She is probably going to be popular, as those things are measured, in that she is outgoing, she likes talking to everyone, and she is a very pretty girl. I worry, though, if that is going to be a good thing being popular. Perhaps that is because I was the polar opposite when I was in school. I guess as a parent you can always find new things to worry about.

I know I haven't been writing as much lately - I actually have plenty of things to say, I just have been lazy and taking advantage of being able to do other things, as I know I only have a week left to do so. Ironically, I think having less time to play around like that will make me spend more of it writing.

Now to enjoy the quiet time.