I love kindergarten!

I braced myself when I opened the credit card bill this month, since I knew it contained our vacation spending (not counting the big items like airfare and hotels, which we prepaid). I was pleasantly surprised to find the lowest number I've seen in the past year! Daycare, usually our biggest item, was cut in half. I called to confirm and yep, it's not a mistake -- they applied K's last-month deposit (which I had forgotten about) for August. Our daycare costs won't always be quite this low -- we'll be paying a little more for X without the sibling discount, and K's extended day program is about $350 a month -- but we are still getting a sizable raise, a month earlier than I had expected! Hooray for public school! And when X is three, we may be able to lottery into the preschool program at K's school, which is nearly half the price of private daycare. All of which means that the US Department of Education will be getting a big fat check from me within the next 6 months, and our gigantic mortgage for our 100-year old fixer-upper will be the only debt hanging over our heads.

Other goings-on in the past few days (pictures if I get time later):

Saturday: Nonna's 90th birthday party! A big family event, replete with a five-verse song recapping her life to the tune of "This Land is Your Land."

Sunday: Bronx Zoo with my niece. The kids LOVED it. They had a "Lego Safari" exhibit with life-size Lego wild animals coming out of the woods, and a little station where you could build your own Lego animals. The next day I heard K explaining that if you did a really good job building your Lego animal, they would put it in the woods.

Monday and Tuesday: Up at the lake with some relatives we rarely see: JW's sister and her family, and his uncle from New Zealand, PLUS 90-year old Nonna, who hardly ever leaves her house! Meanwhile, in the big city: my new nephew was born!! Nine days early, to my poor sister-in-law, who we dragged all around the zoo the day before in 90-degree weather.

Today: K said, "Mommy, can I tell you something? This is true. I mean it, this is true. It's really true. I won the lottery."
"You won the lottery?"
"Yes. I won four dollars."
"From Uncle Andy's ticket that he let you scratch?"
"Yes."
"I think that's his four dollars."
"Can I have it?"
"Okay. We can start a savings account for you."
I decided that rather than an actual bank account, I would hold on to his account. I made him an account statement that had four dollar signs on it and taped it on his wall. He started plotting all the things he would do with his money, and I asked how he planned to get more.
"I'll win the lottery again."
I suggested working for his money instead.
After that, he kept telling everyone we ran into that he had some money. If he stays interested, maybe I'll think about giving him extra chores for money.