School and Building Tour

We went on a tour of Kahlil's school today. We saw his class and meet his teacher - Ms. Gupta - and class assistant - Ms. Aini. Ms. Gupta introduced him to his classmates and they all gave him a huge welcome. I had to turn away when Ms. Gupta took Kahlil's hand from me to make the intro - I didn't think it would be good form to cry in front of a dozen 5 year olds. We also saw the library, music room, and computer room. He will be studying Mandarin four days a week. He and Jay agreed to trade words Spanish for Mandarin. And if Jay doesn't know the word, there is always Grandma Dolores.

Before we went on the tour, I could tell Kahlil was a little nervous and he wasn't his usual boisterous self. I think having us all there for the tour really helped him feel more comfortable and by the end, Kahlil was starting to come out of his shell and talking to people that passed by. We got all the school hand outs and are gearing up for his first day of class on Monday. Kahlil seems ready. Me, on the other hand, not so much.

I mentioned some of the amenities in our building, but I didn't really say much about our apartment. It's a two bedroom flat on the 16th floor. The first time I stepped out to the balcony and looked down, I got a little queasy. I quickly made a rule that no kids are allowed on the balcony without an adult. I reasonable rule I think.

There is a combination microwave / convection oven. Our first attempt to use the 'oven' function to heat up a frozen pizza didn't go well. The pizza ended up in a large frying pan on the stove. But last night we actually 'grilled' chicken and it came out ok. I don't know that I'll be able to bake cookies but I have a few months to work on it.

Every week day, we get a full breakfast down near the lobby. Some of the dishes rotate - pancakes, sausages, fried tomatoes, mini quiche - and some of the items stay the same - toast, croissant, fresh fruit, cold cereal. I'm pretty sure I would have lost weight by now if not for breakfast. If I could have just one meal a day prepared for me, breakfast would be it. And the boys seem to LOVE it. This morning I had to get each of them thirds. I feel a bit like a mother bird trying to gather enough worms to keep her chicks from squawking.

Our apartment is serviced daily by Helen. She is super nice and helpful. Jay insists her favorite thing to do is wash dishes, but I insist on washing our dinner dishes and just let her put them away in the morning. Helen gave us a drying rack for our clothes as I'm pretty sure the drier couldn't keep up with the dirty clothes generated by five people. Our doorman is Jafar and he is a huge hit with the boys. He gets high fives every time we come or go.

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