In The Zone

A is getting adjusted to his new, all day school experience. He had a rough day on Tuesday -- A refused to do any of his morning work, and didn't want to eat lunch or lay down on his Lightning McQueen towel at "rest time".

The teacher sends home a folder with a daily progress report in it that sums up the day in segments. Each segment has a space for a sticker: smiley faces = great; straight line faces = some compliance issues; and frowney faces = poor choices. We had all smileys on Monday, and straight lines on Tuesday. Wednesday we had American flag stickers...I'm not entirely sure what that means. And today, his folder was not in his backpack, so I have no idea how his day went. But he didn't seem overly churlish or agitated when he got off Mario Andretti's bus today.

A does not have school tomorrow, so he'll have a long weekend to decompress before jumping back into the fray on Monday.

I have a meeting on Tuesday with the special needs teaching team to get A all set up for kindergarten next year. At this point, the special education board feels confident that he will do just fine in a typical, mainstream classroom for kindergarten -- even though he does not talk very much and still has some fine motor skills difficulties. Intellectually, he has stunned the instructors here at how much he can do. A will be expected to complete all the work a "normal" kindergartener would -- AND he will have a special ed teacher coming in for part of the day to work on some special areas, like handwriting, where there are known difficulties.

Won't know more until after my visit on Tuesday. All I know is, we're getting in the zone.

Speaking of "in the zone" -- I'm not entirely sure how this escaped my attention, but Dr Pepper is the state drink of Texas. Why, do you ask? Because it was created in Waco, and the original plant in Dublin still makes their Dr Pepper with cane sugar instead of corn syrup, and puts it in glass bottles.

May I just say this: I have tasted Dr Pepper in glass bottles before, but apparently it's the "newer" recipe using the corn syrup and never the original recipe. Until now. Oh, my 23 flavored goodness!! *swoon* There is even a museum supposed to be in Waco somewhere. I'm feeling the urge for a road trip soon...I can call it a historical excursion, right?

Did I mention that Dr Pepper is my one true vice? I can't get enough of it -- although I do limit myself to one (or less) a day. I even recently switched to Diet to combat the aforementioned vice's effects on my hip circumference -- but that's just between friends. Shhhhhh! (I figure anything that lets me get my "fix" without contributing to my nether regions deserves a sporting chance. But I'll also say there ain't nothin' like the real thing.)

Ah, Mecca! Texas is looking a whole lot nicer to me right now -- even if we did hit 91 degrees today and there are wildfires blazing in various areas of the state as I type this.