Owen Ba-Gowen

After all of the posts about Judd lately I felt that it was time to finally post about someone other than him. It's not that my other two boys aren't doing fun and exciting things, it's just that babies do so much NEW stuff so quickly it's a little easier to write about.

This week is very exciting for Owen though. I took Friday off of work because I had no daycare backup, in order to take Owen to his Kindergarten Roundup. This is an event that takes place every Spring for incoming Kindergartners for the next year. He gets to meet all of the Kindergarten teachers, take a tour of the school, get registered for school, and meet some of the kids he will be going to school with. I am very excited for him and anxious to see the inside of the school he will be attending. I have apprehensions about the school he is supposed to go to. I've heard mixed reviews and it is the largest elementary school in the Omaha Metro area. Owen is a super smart kid and excels in academics. His preschool teachers say that he is probably the most advanced kid in class in fundamentals and other tasks. His downfall is that even though he is playful and outgoing, he is not outspoken. He is very polite and sits quietly and listens to the teacher instead of interrupting and making a scene. He gets shy and though he asks for help when he needs something, he is not very good at getting himself noticed. His teachers say because of the combination of his intelligence and his lack of being noticed, he is likely to fall through the cracks in a large environment. Meaning, that the teachers will think he knows what he is doing and will not pay close enough attention to him and will instead move on to kids that might be behind academically. Then if he ends up struggling, they may not notice. Needless to say the large environment of this elementary school is daunting to me. I'm trying to be very optimistic, but it's hard to imagine your baby being ignored in school and struggling and "falling through the cracks" as is a possible prediction. Aargh, it's so hard!

I do have options however. I intend on filling out a special needs transfer to a different elementary school in my area that is highly recommended by many people, but there is a very big chance he won't be able to transfer there because they will be full. The only other option is to enroll him in a church private school, but that is so darn expensive, especially when you have more than one kid soon to be attending school.

I'll keep you all posted, but for now I am trying to just be very excited for his upcoming visit to the school on Friday. He is looking forward to it and Kindergarten in general, so that is good. I have all summer to try and prepare myself, even though I know I will be a ball of crying mush on his first day of school, no matter how much prep work I do!!!

Since I took the day off on Friday, I am loading up the boys (minus Tony who has to work) to head to St. Louis, MO to finally visit my parents and sister Kelly after 1 1/2 years of being away. I've seen them many, many times in this time period, but haven't been to their neck of the woods in that long. So that will be fun. I'm sad to leave Tony, but his mom will keep him busy and maybe he'll work on the new patio with his mom's husband!! **fingers crossed!**

Owen is the bun in the oven! Oh so long ago...memories!

Owen is here! He was two days old. Crazy how long ago this was! What a cutie!

My almost Kindergartner now! He's such a big boy and my little cuddler. I'm so proud!