Friday, October 22, 2010

The Absence of Worry and Other Good Things

Petunia's one year check up was today. She was in a great mood for the doctor, and showed off her babbling skills as well as her winning smile. She has adorable dimples when she smiles.

It was a crying intensive visit, despite her great mood- she got all of the vaccinations on offer (MMR, chicken pox, hepatitis A, and flu), and she also had to have blood drawn to follow up on her recurring fevers. We'd had an ultrasound done last week, which showed no problems, and she got so much happier after a day or two on antibiotics that we all pretty strongly suspected that the health scare was caused by a bacterial infection of some sort. However, the doctor ordered follow up blood tests, just to be sure. She called earlier this evening to let us know that the sedimentation rate test, which was the test that was most worrisome the first time around, came back completely normal. So yes- it was an infection, and that infection is gone now, thanks to the antibiotics. Phew! I hadn't realized that I was still worried until suddenly, I wasn't anymore.

-------------------------------------------

After the doctor's appointment, I took Petunia for a little walk in our neighborhood. I happened to be walking past the school down the street from us when the parents were arriving to pick up their kids. It is a public school, but it is a Spanish immersion magnet. We're thinking about trying to get Pumpkin in there for kindergarten, but haven't really decided yet. So I asked some of the parents what they think of the school. They all loved it- but they told me that this year, there were 300 applicants for 100 kindergarten spots. However, they also told me that there are a couple bilingual programs in the district, including one at a school that wouldn't be too far out of the way for us. So Hubby and I have some research to do. 

I've been reading Bad Mom, Good Mom's education posts with interest (here is her latest: Economic Integration of Schools), because she is sending her daughter to public schools in LA, and knows a lot about the California education system. Her posts give me hope that we can figure this out and get our children good educations in our local public schools. In fact, I suspect that our kids would do just fine if we just sent them to the "default" public school for our area. It is really just the lure of having them become fluent in a second language that is making us look at other options. Well, that and the fact that the Spanish immersion school is only a few blocks away, while our "default" school is many more blocks away, and down a fairly steep hill. If we want to have our daughters walk to or from school in elementary school, we'd better get into the Spanish immersion school. Either that, or they'll be very, very fit from walking up that hill every day!

--------------------------------------------

In other news, I have finally updated Pumpkin and Petunia's book list post.
Pumpkin doesn't attach as strongly to particular books as she used to, but Petunia definitely does!

2 comments:

  1. Yay. So glad that you are now 100% worry-free

    We just had our one yr check-up, too. I hate shots. Actually, I don't mind getting shots, I hate when my kids have to get shots. B turned blue and would. not. breathe. Even the nurse was surprised at how long she held her breath but boy, when the scream finally let loose, it was so loud and so mad and so, so sad.

    Is it a lottery to get into the bilingual school? Does your default school offer any language programs?

    ReplyDelete
  2. SO glad it was just an infection and she's doing fine now. Isn't it amazing how we don't always realize we are still worried until we aren't anymore? Amazing what we live with that becomes normal.

    ReplyDelete

Sorry for the CAPTCHA, folks. The spammers were stealing too much of my time.