Well Baby Doctor Visits and School Conferences and Voting Mania

So, this week M had her 4 year old well baby appointment and her first preschool parent teacher conference. She came through both with shining colors. She was given two shots at the doctor's appointment, including the flu shot, and she did not cry or even flinch. What a trouper! The doctor gave her a choice to either get the shot or the flu mist and after hearing the process for the mist (something along the lines of shoving a tube up her nose and inhaling stuff that might make her cough) she elected for the shot. Who knew? We explained that we are all getting the flu shot this year to protect us and more importantly our new baby from getting sick and she was right on board.

We also met with M's teacher for her first parent teacher conference and that was fun for us. She is doing great and of course meeting or exceeding all expectations. Per the teacher she loves to paint, has very good concentration skills and is very friendly. Of course we knew all that, but its always nice to hear what an unrelated third party has to say about your children!

We had D's kindergarten parent teacher conference this morning and of course she had nothing but great things to say about him. He is doing wonderfully and the teacher just raves about his art work. I suppose there are some things that we as parents take for granted that if our kid can do it, all 5 year olds can do...apparently this is not the case : ) . They are learning "pre-algebra" skills in their math lessons, a statement that J and I found baffling in the context of a kindergarten parent teacher conference, but I suppose they just start everything younger now. Before we know it they will be teaching calculus in third grade and high school will be all about padding your resume for your mid-life career change...seems a little crazy. What about the good old days when all you had to do was master a few multiplication tables in order to ace 5th grade math?

The election is right around the corner and frankly I can't wait for the big day. J is somewhat (understatement?) obsessed with the election and all the hooey that is going on with the candidates and the campaigns and I would just like it to all be over. Signs are going up all over our neighborhood with people declaring their support for this or that candidate, so its kind of fun to see that so many people are really invested in this election. I read that they are expecting record voter turnout this year and I really hope that is the case. J is an election monitor in charge of one of the election sites this year so while he will be watching to see what happens right up until he has to report for duty, on the day of he will be isolated with all the voters and not a clue as to what is going on in the polls or with the pundits. Maybe that's a good thing...anyway, no matter who you vote for, get out and vote!