Brain dump with cute costumed kids

 Ben is finishing up his current job and preparing to start his new job, and I am just in a holding pattern, noting parts of my current schedule that were desperately in need of a change AND ALSO mourning things we HAVE to change.

The Little Gym.

 You guys. We aren’t going to be able to keep Min in her preschool gymnastics class.

 I am irrationally sad about this. 

I mean, ok, we could keep her in. Like, logistically, it is sort of possible. BUT. Her preschool is very much not a daycare. And yet! She is going to go there every day— but as part of 2 different classes, the 3-day class she already attends and also a 2-day class taught by the same teacher. Soooo, she will have 2 different friend groups. 

Little Gym is during the 2-day class, and I could keep her out and send her to gym or pick her up early for gym BUT that seemed weird since then she would just have 1 day with her 2-day friends (and be the only kid there for 1 day), or she’d miss all the end of day stuff, which she truly loves at school, and I would have to cut out work time, which is silly when I am feeling the pinch. 

There are no Little Gym classes in our afternoon schedule sweet spot. There is a class in the evening one day a week, but our evenings are BANANAS, so that’s not really an option. We are going to try a Saturday class for a few weeks since we have an extra month on our billing cycle, but with hockey, etc, I am not sure we want a weekend commitment for her, especially since we are moving her swim lessons (def keeping her in those— she is on a roll) to Sunday.

A frustrating preschool schedule note: classes are either DURNG NURSERY SCHOOL HOURS (that 8-12 time frame) or DURING BIG KID ACTIVITIES (the 4-6 time frame). Like, both swim and gym are closed from 12-4. WHAT.

ANYWAY. We are losing the Little Gym, and I am super sad about it.

I will say that our current gym day is a cluster of a day for me, and having work time instead is going to be WONDERFUL. I do feel kind of frantic on my current days that move from Minnie’s school pick up to big kid activity hell with just the briefest stop at home, but it s a home-mom frantic since my work mom self gets plenty of time to function. More days like that will make work mom happy for sure, but home mom? Is going to need to outsource some STUFF.

Ben and I are taking a wait and see approach with a google doc to note scheduling and workload issues when they arise and plans to check in at intervals to see what’s working and what needs a tweak. We have bandaid fixes for my current semester, the spring with some breathing room to keep developing a rhythm, and plans to be efficient AF by fall 2024.

But really? I didn’t plan to just whine about my schedule. I wanted to dump some darling pics ahead of even more costumed revelry.

The girls’ dance studio does HALLOWEEN WEEK. This year, that means Tuesday-Thursday of this week and Monday next week are COSTUME DAYS (no class Tuesday, duh).

Dorothy lewk 1:

Minnie also went as a bunny to her dance class, and she wore Dorothy’s old ballet costume

Also, serious dancing Minnie KILLS ME. Here’s hip hop Minnie:

And ballet Minnie

Dorothy showed her true colors for dance day 2:

And! Minnie had a skill celebration class at the Little Gym, meaning parents got to go in (lovely), and she wore a costume. It was so cute that maybe we should just, um, never go back? Make a clean break?

Side note: I have been hanging onto that Pottery Barn Kids skeleton costume since COOPER was TWO, and finally! Minnie wanted to be a skeleton for her Little Gym class. ONLY I COULD NOT FIND THE MASK, which has been living in Dorothy’s top dresser drawer for EIGHT YEARS. But she broke her dresser and got a new one last weekend, and I moved the mask and LOST IT after 8 years of saving space in my brain to know where it was JUST IN CASE we had another fat skeleton. (Found it in the laundry room on a hook. THANK GOODNESS).

Halloween, 2015:

One more random thing: she chose maybe the ugliest dresser I have ever seen in my life (we went to a million local furniture stores and wanted one that was the same dimensions of her old dresser and and ready to come home instantly, so she didn’t have THAT many choices. Still.) YOU GUYS:

(There is a bed to match this baby that is rimmed in LED lights AND chrome. PRAY FOR ME).