Maria is having a good February. She is getting ready at school to take her iStep (our standardized tests in IN) for the first time. I had kind of a run in with a teacher at her school. Her teacher, the other third grade teacher, sent an email saying that they were getting ready for iStep and they were going to be SUPER busy, with every minute accounted for. She said they were trying to make it a fun and challenging time and not get them too nervous about it. This all seemed good to me until I got to the part where if they misbehaved, they would get a warning and then they would get extra homework. (Screech like when the record stops playing). I said what? We are supposed to support all this extra work they are doing and make it seem fun and challenging but if they step out of line they get ... more work? It seemed backwards to me and I said it. I got a lot of supportive emails from a lot of parents in our class and one back from the teacher, not answering my question about how it made sense to give more homework at a time when they have more homework than ever, because of course there is no answer for that foolishness, but just reiterating her position. And you should have seen the homework! One hundred multiplication tables which Maria could do it her sleep, by the way, on a bright gold color paper! Why not just put a big B for BAD on their chest? Anyway I said that whatever her reasons were, I disagreed and Maria would not be doing any extra homework and we wouldn't be signing it. I said that I am always supportive of my kids' teachers but I have to be supportive of them first and foremost. It hasn't come up again, I don't know if they're doing it anymore or not but whatevs! It's taken care of.
Here's Maria at her Valentine's Day party, so cute.
January
In January, Maria turned nine. She feels older and younger than that to me, time being what it is. I feel like I remember her babyhood the best, because it was just the two of them and Anthony was 2.5. When I had Veronica, Anthony was older and it was a loonier time and Maria was only 16 months old and by the time I had Felicity I think we can just safely blame old age. Ha! Anyway, her birthdays are always so crazy, she had 16 or 17 girls over, including my three, and they had a fun time, eating pizza and cupcakes. She is a good life of the party. Here she is on MLK day, we went out to breakfast because Mike was sick and we were trying to get out of the house.
and here she is at her party, with the cutout of her that our friend Joe made.
December
Who can remember? This is why I should update more often! Maria got a tablet for Christmas, and a Hatchimal. We had a fun break, I only had one week in common with them and then Mike stayed home the second week. I took the three girls downtown again and we stayed overnight. It was fun, they love swimming in that hotel pool. Here's something I'd like to say after staying in the Hilton Garden Inn downtown two years in a row: both years I have used Miles from my Chase credit card associated with United airlines and two years in a row the people who work at the hotel have been really crappy to me, as if I am somehow taking money out of their pockets. But otherwise it was fun, we saw Moana (which we liked a lot, although Maria kept saying, THIS IS INTENSE!), had dinner with Laura, went to the circle and the big Christmas "tree", and to a fun candy store called Rocket Fizz.
Here's a cute picture of the three girls at the mall,
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