May Madness

It's 2pm, and Rose is snoozing away in her crib. I keep checking my watch, since Isaac's first-grade music performance starts in 20 minutes. I figure I can give her seven or eight minutes of shuteye before I have to cruelly wake her up to take her to that performance, then to Maren's school for a quick pick up, then to Annie's school for the last few minutes of her orchestra concert. We'll come home, grab a bottle, then get back in the car to drop Annie off at dance, then we'll be headed to Bryce's class play, followed by another swing down to the dance studio, and then bed, after a round of celebratory milkshakes at Shivers. And tonight is a relatively easy night-- we opted out of Bryce's guitar lesson and have said no to playdates. You should look at our schedule on Tuesdays.

Anyway, with these last few weeks of school winding down, Rose and I find ourselves on every invite list-- sixth-grade dance, preschool graduation, fifth-grade play, and she's gotten more culture in the form of listening to kids bang out Yankee Doodle on the clarinet and dance to "Rainbow Connection" than she ever could have imagined during the year she spent in relative isolation in China. Sometimes I worry that she's traded living in her back on a crib to facing backwards in the car seat, but she doesn't seem to mind too much.

I used to think that December was the craziest month of the year, but since I've had four kids in school, I've revised my opinion-- it's definitely May, when everyone has to celebrate every accomplishment in school, music, dance, scouts, swimming, etc... I guess the upside to this month of concerts and plays is that Rose has gotten to see absolutely every activity she could conceivably be interested in participating in once she gets old enough to walk and talk and hold a musical instrument.