Well that didnt hurt at all!

Lucy's filling was pretty simple this morning. We went into the procedure room, I sat in the chair with her in my lap, the tech bribed her with all sorts of coins and told her about the "princess light" that was going to fix her tooth, the dentist came in, picked the junk out of the hole(until I was about two seconds from passing out), then put some goop in there, shined a light on it, and we were done. Stick a fork in it- DONE.
Afterwards, we went to the toy store so that Lucy could pick out some "compensation" for her troubles, and she selected yet another baby doll. This one is special though, because you fill its belly with water so that its more lifelike. It is an impressive sight, and for just 14.99$ Lucy was able to forget all about the inconvenient dentist appointment earlier this morning. We also picked up a toy helicopter for Zachary because today was his last day of Kindergarten! Which brings me to-

I guess I can announce this here(because I can do whatever I want here, its my blog)...we have decided that next year we will homeschool Zachary instead of sending him back to public school. We are so excited to do this with him and feel blessed that we are able to do this with him.
There are a multitude of reasons for why we have made this decision, that I probably wont share with everyone simply because its long and complicated. But let the record show it was NOT due to a poor performance. As a matter of fact, I will brag that my child(who is the youngest in his class and certainly dealing with the most difficulties out of any other kid in his class), brought home an outstanding report card to finish up the year with. He successfully woo'd the office staff, bus attendant, and entire IEP team over the course of the school year. He had at least one girlfriend that I know of and even got an award for having outstanding manners. He was also awarded "The Bulldog of the Month" earlier this year. Dont get me wrong, I know my child isnt perfect, I am just gosh darn proud of him this year.
Maybe some of our motivations for this decision lie in the fact that our "different" child is labeled "disabled" because of his unique-ness. Or maybe its that every other day some kid in his class of 22 was having a birthday, unbirthday, Friday, or celebration for some nonsense that required the disbursement of ice cream, cake, and pizza- all of which my child cannot have and was forced to sit by and watch while the others enjoyed without compassion. Maybe its that over the last year my 5 year old child was shoved into an extremely tiny classroom for over 7 hours a day with 22 children + 1 teacher and forced to focus solely on academics instead of art, music, or gym activities. And maybe its that after that 7 hours a day of academics he was sent home everyday with homework to do as though he hadn't had enough work. Maybe its some of those things. Maybe. Or maybe, just maybe, the one thing that pushed us over the edge was when the IEP staff at his school actually stated that "the amount of handwriting and academic material taught in Kindergarten is actually developmentally inappropriate for a 5 year old. Many children are in Kindergarten but not functioning at a Kindergarten level, however they do not qualify for services because they are on target for their age level." Maybe that was it.
Whatever our reasons are, they are well grounded. We spent a lot of time researching and debating whether this was the right decision or not. We feel strongly this is the best thing for Zachary and if you happen to not agree, that's fine but we don't really need to hear about it. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. Really, I do. Our decision for next year has already been made and is final, so you see, negative input really isn't going to help. We will spend the next year learning together and assess at the end of the year whether or not we will continue. We probably will reevaluate ourselves EVERY year to determine if we are doing what is in the best interest of our children.
So wish us luck for the upcoming school year! Now all that's left to do is sit back and enjoy the summer!
Thanks for reading and checking in on us(I know this was a long one)!