Our Belle-Belle is really having a rough few months. Since she started on immunosuppressants earlier in the year we knew we needed to be cautious with her since she would be more susceptible to infections.

When she dropper her weight near 20 pounds, we were very happy for her and we even started to mix dry foods into her diet to give her a variety. But we began to notice that she ate less and less - to the point of concern.

Our vet informed us that with the diabetic wet food she was on, the high protein meant she would be fuller much quicker, but we went from feeding her two full cans a day where she would polish off every last morsel, to only giving her half a can twice a day, plus dry food and she would not eat half of what we put down for her.

Then she started to reject taking her pills and we noticed that a few small bumps were starting to show up on her skin.

Naturally, we had to take her in for a checkup. She is now on a feline formulated Cyclosporine (similar to the immunosuppressant she had been taking, but supposedly more palatable for kitties) and is being treated for severe gum infection.

Poor kitty!! No wonder she hadn't been eating well. She is just 19 pounds now.

With a shot of antibiotics and medicine for the rest of the week, we hope she'll overcome her infection soon. She will go in for another checkup next Monday.

Weather has been gorgeous in Colorado. However, Castle Rock is always a bit windy and despite the warm temperatures, it has been too windy to be outside with the girls for long periods of time. Last weekend, though, we got to go on our first warm-up hike for the season. We wanted to start easy and see how Kayleigh would do, so we headed to Rock Park to go up to the Castle Rock.

Kayleigh's first hike where she actually walked a good ways

The view at the summit, overlooking The Meadows - our housing community.  Somewhere over there is our house.  You'll have to ask Abby where.

Paul helps Abby find the direction of our house

Nice Father-Daughter picture

Kayleigh didn't last very long on her feet and ended up on my back, in the carrier, for most of the hike up

The hike up ends just under Castle Rock, where Paul, Abby, and Kayleigh sat and rested for a spell

Then Abby and Kayleigh explored some nooks and crevices

Heading back down

Steep steps for little legs

Kayleigh did not want to leave, but the day was windy and a bit chilly, so we didn't get to stay very long.  For ages after we left, she kept crying in the back seat, trying to express with her limited vocabulary that she wanted to go back and see the strange, cow-like creatures. "Moo.  Moo.  Moo.  Back there!  Moo.  Moo.  Moo."

Both Abby and Kayleigh had their 6-month dental checkup and cleaning at the beginning of the month. Abby has always been great at the dentist's office and had actually been eager to see Dr. Jon for weeks now. Kayleigh's last cleaning had not been received well and she screamed and cried the whole time. Unfortunately, I wasn't there for their last cleaning - Paul had taken them. So, I was mentally prepared for a fight.

We were all pleasantly surprised that both girls did extremely well!  This pediatric dentist's office uses tables rather than chairs because it is easier on them - as well as the kids - for them to be lying down during an exam.  Abby gets a bit scared of flipping around and lying on her back, but with a little assistance, she does just fine.  Kayleigh sat on my lap and watched Abby get a full exam and cleaning.  Abby was so brave that Kayleigh was actually eager for her turn!


When Abby was through, Jill the hygienist had Abby sit next to Kayleigh while she slowly showed Kayleigh all the tools she was going to use, demonstrated how the tools would be used in her mouth by first performing everything on her fingers.  Then she counted her teeth, brushed, scraped, polished, and flossed Kayleigh's teeth with Kayleigh's full cooperation!

Taking x-rays to determine the extent of damage in the abscess

I am always surprised by how brave Abby is.  We returned the following Monday and the dentist asked if Abby remembered why we were here again.  She said, "Yeah, you need to wiggle out my Princess crown."  And then she calmly followed him to the back of the office.

The numbing shots brought on some tears, but she quickly recovered and let Dr. Jon take out her tooth. Since the root had started decaying away, the tooth came out really quickly and easily.  Abby didn't flinch.  They gave her some gas to relax her and she was never scared or timid once she was numb.  The tooth was cleaned and placed inside a tooth-shaped container on a string, which they gave us to take home.

As we were going home, Abby only commented that she didn't care for the numbing shots (mosquito bites) and having to bite on the icky gauze to stop the bleeding.

The Princess Crown was replaced by a Princess Tiara

She got to skip school for a day and helped make some pudding for dessert.

When it was time to pick up Kayleigh at the end of the day, Abby said to me in the car, "Mom, today was...um...boring.  Can I go to school tomorrow?"  I guess she didn't need the relaxing day as much as I thought she would!

The night before her tooth extraction, I sewed Abby a tooth pillow.  This Monster Tooth Pillow idea was found on the internet and adapted for my lack of sewing skills.  I never thought about having the tooth fairy visit our house, but since Dr. Jon planted the idea in Abby's head and since she is still so young when she lost her first tooth, we decided to go along with it.

Teefany - Abby's tooth fairy - left her a letter and a 2-pound British coin.  Being the smart little girl that she is, she insisted that her daddy gave her the coin because he had recently returned from England!  After much convincing, she did finally give in.  We'll just need to be more creative next time!

A Monster Tooth Fairy Pillow I made for Abby.  The tooth was placed in a container, then inserted in to the monster's mouth pocket to wait for the tooth fairy.

Abby's tooth fairy, Teefany, left her a cool two-toned, British 2-pound coin and a note.

Despite the loss of an hour, I love enjoying the later sunset thanks to Daylight Savings.

It's Monday and I was dragging all day. Work was slow. The weather outside was GORGEOUS and I was stuck inside staring at a computer screen.

Luckily, I was going to leave work early and visit the daycare near our house because Kayleigh will transfer there once Abby starts Kindergarten next year. It is the same chain of childcare that Kayleigh and Abby are currently at, but because each facility is franchised, the franchise-owners and staff make or break the daycare. As it turns out, I love this one. The facility was immaculate, similar to their current school. I met the assistant director, spoke with their director, and got to speak with their lead teacher in the class Kayleigh will be entering. Amazingly enough, the lead teacher transferred to this daycare one year ago from our current school and she not only remembers me, but she is very fond of Kayleigh, having been her teacher when she was a year old!

Anyway, I got to leave work at 3:30! Picked up the girls after I registered Kayleigh at the daycare, then met Paul for dinner. Paul left work early as well to get his right index finger x-rayed because of a run-in with a chain-linked fence a few weeks ago. He left to play in his Monday evening racquet ball league and the girls and I got to enjoy some outdoor time at a nearby park.

Such a great way to end a Monday!

Do you remember how exciting it always was to go on a school field trip? A day that is outside the norm and breaks the monotony of sitting in the same old classroom. I always enjoyed field trips, but I was lucky to have attended schools that took us to really interesting places.

I got these photos from Abby's teachers back in September 2011. Abby went on her very first school field trip with her Pre-K class.

When kids turn 4 they are finally allowed to ride a school bus and venture off school grounds.


The kids loved the field trip to the local public library and each got to pick a book to check out and bring back to the classroom to share with their friends.


The library field trip is one they do regularly and often - about every other week. The other regular field trip these kids enjoy is to the LifeCare center, conveniently located across the parking lot from their school. They always enjoy going there to see their "grown up friends" - LifeCare is a nursing home/assisted living center and they always arrange for artsy-crafty or reading type activities that the kids and residents can all participate in together.

Otherwise, there are a couple of special trips they do throughout the year, such as visiting a pumpkin patch and hay maze during the Fall.

After 2 years of stressing about what to do about Kindergarten, we have it almost figured out. In fact, we have exactly 6 days to figure it out. So there. We must decide. Enrollment forms are due on 3/15.

Problem is we are really struggling with the decision, which is no surprise. The good news is we know we want her to attend a Montessori school. Ha! Go figure. 3 months ago we weren't even inclined to check out Montessori schools. It's not that we had anything against the method of teaching. In fact, I had grown up hearing family friends praise their Montessori schools. Everyone who's been in them seem to love them. But we are also aware that kids with certain types of personalities are not good matches for their teaching method. The problem was that despite all sorts of research, I couldn't quite piece together WHY and HOW it works. Plus, both Paul and I went to traditional public schools and we think we turned out ok....

So, after immediately rejecting our neighborhood school for not being able to meet our educational expectations, we applied to several charter schools in the area and even checked into a private school. Our neighborhood school teaches to the average child. If a child is behind, he/she will fall further behind because they don't tailor how they teach. If your child is advanced, he/she will quickly become bored as they don't know how to challenge them. This was the standard feedback we got from several neighbors with kids at the school. When we browsed their website and found out that Abby already knew all the math and reading concepts that the Kindergarten kids expect to know before 1st grade, we felt uncomfortable enough to reject it.

Charter schools are public and are open to anyone within the district. Unfortunately, to avoid any sort of discrimination, they rely on a lottery system to get in. On average, about 15% of applicants get in. We ended up so far down the list on our top 2 choices for charter schools that we knew Abby would never get in for Kindergarten. We started panicking because we had only applied to 3 charter schools! At that point, we knew there was one more charter school in the county that we MIGHT be interested in - DCS Montessori Charter. So, we went to check it out and was blown away by what we saw and heard about the Montessori philosophy. Our favorite aspect of Montessori was that students stay with their teachers for 3 years. They learn at their own pace, but INDIVIDUAL educational goals are constantly being evaluated and so closely monitored that each child will leave with the required skill set, almost always more. Within the 3 years, they are exposed to a concept over and over again, during which time they are expected to learn the concept, master it, and have the opportunity to mentor/teach it to their younger peers. Paul and I have always believed that you don't truly learn something - the skill is not truly "yours" - until you are able to teach it to someone else. We saw first hand the level of confidence these kids have. They know their own learning style and are aware of all the resources provided to them to help them learn. Great qualities to have in life. Finally, we were surprised to see first-hand how a couple of second-graders, using about 3 different ways to solve a math problem, helping each other out to finish an assignment involving multiplication so complex I didn't think 5th graders would normally be solving! Our application to DCS Montessori went in.

After being pleasantly surprised at how much we liked the school, we investigated another option. A pure, traditional, Montessori school, but a private one - the Montessori School of Denver. Not being a charter school and requiring to follow state-mandated standards, but rather an independent school, they have the accreditation and ability to tailor their curriculum even further. What stood out when we toured the school was implementation of a lot of feedback from alumni regarding transitioning Montessori students to a traditional high school and college, plus the importance of technology as a resource and knowledge of current events. As we walked through the upper elementary school classes, we saw a frenzy of kids so intensely focused on various research areas regarding the Wikipedia Blackout happening that day! (I didn't know what that was and had to google it after the tour!) It reminded me that someone commented to me, "Why would people do Montessori? Kids all do whatever they want. There's no focus and it's all chaos." It is really quite a shock to observe a class for the first time for anyone more used to the traditional schools because classes do appear very chaotic. But once you're over the discomfort you notice that every child is focused and engaged in their tasks, which are thoughtfully introduced to the kids at specific times. There is so much respect for the child to control what and how they learn that, in turn, they learn to show the same type of respect to others, which is a bonus and a by-product of the Montessori philosophy.

So, returning to the present. We just learned on Monday that we've been accepted at both Montessori schools. Additionally, we are about 30 places down on the waitlist for that last charter school we applied to, which means we're not going to hold our breaths for a spot. DCS Montessori is a charter, so being state-funded, we only have to pay for part-day Kindergarten and 1st - 8th grades are all free. DCS is also just 10 minutes from our house and situated in a spectacular, brand-new building with gorgeous mountain views. But its location would mean that once Abby starts school we will need to transfer Kayleigh to a daycare closer to Castle Rock because it would not make sense for her to stay at the daycare they're both currently at, which is completely out of the way. Kayleigh will be eligible to attend when she turns 3, but she would have to go through a lottery to get in, albeit with sibling priority. The school is well-rated by parents and students. Students score very, very well in the state exams, on par with all the top-rated charter schools in Colorado, but because standardized testing is required, they cannot completely stay away from teaching to the tests.

Montessori School of Denver (MSD) is a private school, so it'll be about $13K a year per child. They have a toddler program and they have accepted both Kayleigh and Abby. They also go through 8th grade and their location is about 10 minutes from where Paul and I both WORK. If we choose to send the girls there, I would be more comfortable having the kids closer to where we are most of the day and it's likely we will move within the next 5 years, and we would definitely be trying to move closer to where we work, so logistically it makes sense. Facility-wise, they are located in a mediocre part of town and certain buildings on their campus were old when they started the school 43 years ago, but things are well-maintained, upgraded as necessary, and some rooms have amazing charm. For example, one of the primary classrooms is a converted barn and the kids' reading nook is a large brick fireplace in the center of the classroom, stuffed with pillows. The school has a great reputation and has maintained their exceptional status in education all these years, students consistently scoring above average compared to others at independent schools. They have an alumni network that is huge and very active, so can be a long-term benefit. But is the COST to BENEFIT ratio worth it?

So, in 6 days, we will make a decision between the two. Both Paul and I have been flip-flopping on this decision every few hours. We're lucky to have two great choices, but it makes the decision very complicated.