back to school

School has begun, and that means a test of my commitment to the family blog. This also means that Mark spends more time with Miah. In just the first week Mark sent me the following e-mail: "I have decided that when I walk into the living room I don't like to see your daughter sprinting across the top of the back of the couch. Particularly when she intentionaly dives head first off of the back onto the seat portion. She thought it was great fun, I thought I was having corenary." I asked him to tell me this story twice when I got home: "She dove from the top of the back of the couch, you said?" She sure did.

We can count the number of real scares she has given us on our fingers, but she is only 18 months. I think we'll be running out of phalanges pretty quick here on out. Phalanges and bandages because ever since her first scraped knee I shared with you here, she seems to have permanent scrapes on her knees. They'll probably stay there until the first snow.

Miah, taking after both of her parents, has a hard time falling asleep at night. Now that I have to rush her off to day care, she doesn't have the luxury of making up lost time in the mornings. This makes her super cuddly in the mornings and awfully hard to let go, but this morning she made it worse by crying. She has never cried over me leaving her before; talk about pulling your heart out.

My first week at school has been a true roller coaster and I'm trying to be patient with it all. The best news I've had all week is that the 10th graders became phenomenal readers last year. 96% were proficient or advanced in reading and the other four students placed in the high third of partially proficient. It will be hard to top that! And the pressure to repeat that performance is almost entirely on me this year (last year three different teachers taught these kids).