Into the Wild Blue Yonder

 

 

Pontotoc County Emi

   

Una tarta para el cumple de la abuela

Kindergartener in the House

This morning at around 7:50 a.m., for the first time, I dropped Emilio off at the curb of his school. That's the way they do it in Kindergarten. Because the designated school greeter wasn't sure how to close our van door, I got to get out and give him one more hug before he started on his great kindergarten adventure.

When I went back for pick up at around 3:40 p.m., Mrs. Harrison gave me a thumbs up report on Emilio's day and told me they'll send us a bill for the lunch milk he drinks (we weren't sure how they do that). Emilio will continue to take his own lunch to school.

The kindergartener himself also declared it a good day. He reported being a little concerned that he might get lost when he got there and they sent him alone down the long hallway to Mrs. Harrison's class (which we had visited the day before), but he got there OK. They played freeze tag at recess in the gym (it's too hot to enjoy the outside playground equipment).

Friday's adventure: riding the bus after school.

Click here to see last year's version of this day.

Goodbye, Monte Vista; Hello, Glenwood!

Wednesday was Emilio's last day at Monte Vista day care (point "A" on the map below; click here to see a photo I took of Emilio on his first day: July 27, 2009). I picked him up, mid-nap-time, at 1:30 p.m., and we headed to Glenwood Early Childhood Center (point "B") in the Ada school district, where he will attend kindergarten, after having been in the Byng school district (just across the street from Monte Vista) last year.

The Glenwood Early Childhood Center, which has kindergarteners and pre-schoolers, is a brand new facility (it was barely finished in time for the start of the school year).

We were happy to get Emilio into the class of a teacher, Mrs. Harrison (see photo at right), who comes to us highly recommended by the family of my colleague, Josh Grasso, whose son had her just this past year. Mrs. Harrison has a background in drama and puts a lot of emphasis on art. When Emilio and I met her, she said she makes a point of praising students for the positive things they do, as opposed to reprimanding them for the negatives.
Another great advantage of the new school is that it is very close (less than 2 miles) to Mari's school (point "C" on the map below), so Emi can take the bus over there and hang out with his mom after school (which is also a money saver for us:  $140 a month).





Click here to relive last year's version of this day.

FC Emilio

Saturday, Emilio got his first taste of Cowboys Stadium, the biggest video screen in the world, and a first-row, live look at the best soccer team in world history (missing one key player): our family favorite, FC Barcelona. We won: 2-0.

Thanks to Villa and Keita for the goals.  Thank you, Brian, for making this happen. (And to Hannah, Olivia, and Melissa for cool company on a warm day.)

As the photos and videos below will attest, Emi gave it his all. Gracias, abuelo, por la camiseta!

   


Whoa!


We were close.


Keita scores in the 89th minute; it's 2-0.


At the 6:17 mark, in the replay of Benitez's wide shot, you can see us on the endline,just above the vertical post. Brian's white Dallas Cowboys shirt stands out; Emilio is in my lap.

Emi and I Get Smacked Around

Early this morning, Emilio felt sick at his stomach.  He's thrown up three times since then and is staying home from school.  Between bouts, he seems to feel fine.  Right now he's in the empty computer lab that adjoins my office, where he is talking smack to a free computer football game available via ESPN arcade.  Mom is at the Jiffy Lube getting a new fuel filter installed in the van (something I've been putting off until our bank account recovers from the trauma it is currently experiencing).

It has been a traumatic morning.  After I dropped Nina and Pablo off at the daycare, I went back home to fetch Emilio.  As Mom was driving us to ECU, I took a swig from my can of Diet Mountain Dew, felt a sudden, intense pain, and spit out both the Dew I'd been drinking and the bee that was stinging my tongue.  Apparently, the little striped villain had crawled in there between swigs.  Mom drove me straight to the Urgent Care clinic, where I completed the sign-in procedure with the stinger still sticking in my tongue.  It stayed there while the staff worked on their McBreakfast (they were all at the front desk) and the nurse's assistant took my blood pressure.  Apparently, this is not the branch that put the "Urgent" in Urgent Care.  I didn't see any other patients in the building while I was there.  Eventually, the head honcho came in and removed the stinger with a pair of tweezers and then walked out to write me a prescription for a pain killer.  He also recommended that I take an anti-histamine to reduce swelling.  The nurse's assistant came back and asked for my hip, which she promptly injected with a steroid, also intended to reduce swelling (but it will also probably make my butt look more muscular, no doubt, which is the silver lining).  After the injection, they said I had to stay there for 20 more minutes (to make sure I didn't get bulk up too fast, I guess).  All this while my tongue is burning (and I'm thinking: if I sneaked a live bee into a spoonful of Santa Fe chili and fed it to Brian and Dad blind, would they thank me for it?).  By the time we got out of the clinic and got my pain medication prescription filled at the drug store, the pain had subsided somewhat.