I’m just warning you, this is going to sound silly…
…but I think the most surprising thing about parenthood (each and everyday) is the feeling of enormity that accompanies each decision your make that will affect your children.
Nothing new here. I mean from day one after finding out you are prego, you begin to make decisions that will affect your kid. How you treat your body while they are growing inside, where you will deliver, who will be your doctor, etc. However, it seemed with all these decisions, you had some time to read some books, ponder your choices and make some well educated decisions (or so you hoped).
Unfortunately, then the kid is born and the decisions just keep on coming, but the timing shrinks to what feels like nothing and you feel like you are flying by the seat of your pants most of the time. Eat this, wear this, are you sick?, go to this preschool, join this soccer team, you are watching to much tv, brush your teeth, go to this church, time-out, private or public schools, etc.
It really begins to feel like you are just taking a shot in the dark and are hoping for the best. Then you realize that each of your three kids is so different that you can’t just opt for the one size fits all approach and you wonder fervently why you procreated THREE times 
Sean and I have been really struggling lately with the fate (yes, do you feel the enormity) of our middle child. He is one of those who will turn 5 right before the cut-off for kindergarten. Is he ready to head to the world of “free” school…who the hell knows? Our pocketbooks scream yes, Sean says yes, I say no, Sean says no, I say yes…it changes by the minute. Of course, I’ve asked everyone I know for their opinion and just wind up more confused.
This also affects where we are in preschool because we are ready to move Bennett to a place closer to our house for his last 3 years of preschool (yes, we will be paying for preschool for at least 3 more years!). However, if Bauer were ready to move onto Kinder, we would just wait and move everyone at the same time and let Bauer finish out the year with his friends. If Bauer is going for the “Super Senior” 4′s year then we will just try and move them now. Do you remember when I told you the decisions just don’t end….
It’s just a big cluster you might say!
Sometimes you just need a clear reason to choose one path or the other and luckily, I feel like God had serious mercy on our tormented parenting souls by providing a situation that could not have made it more clear as to what we needed to do.
A couple weeks after Christmas break was over, Bauer was given an assignment in his 4′s class to build a robot. Bree did this same exercise last year, so Sean was ready and willing to have this chance with Bauer. Bree loved the robot building last year and got really into it. Let’s just say, Bauer likes the idea of robots, but had little to no interest in building one or helping to build one or even just watching Daddy build one.
Bree got a second chance to build a robot and happily so. See the robot that Daddy and Bree built below:
As always, Sean had grand ideas for the robot and it actually had a camera on top and a video monitor (read old baby monitor) inside. It was really awesome and mimicked a robot on tv from Team Umizoomi called “Bot”! 
Bauer had no problem telling his friends at school all about his robot and telling them that Bree really helped out.
He’s definitely not one to take credit for something he didn’t do, but it was just very clear to both Sean and I that he had neither the focus or desire to do his own project. This is a pretty big skill that Bree uses everyday in Kindergarten. He’s just not ready but we both have no doubt that he will be more than ready in a year and a half from now.
He will probably be overly ready (and maybe even bored occasionally in Kinder). But this is the chance you take! You weigh the pros and the cons and hope that you are making the best choice for your kid. One that will make it so he doesn’t struggle and loves school for the next couple decades as much as we did. I told you this was a big decision.
I also really worry that if he started this next year right behind Bree that we would tend to compare their approaches to everything so much more. Bree has been a superstar and no one can argue with that. I feel like in my mind I would always be hoping Bauer would follow the same path. But they are different kids…I HAVE TO REMEMBER THIS. Having two years separate them in school will probably be good for everyone’s psyche.
With this decision, we’ve made it so Bauer will be one of the oldest in his class and hopefully one of the leaders of his class. Or he could be completely bored and disenchanted with school and potentially a trouble maker. I’m choosing to the optimist in this situation.
With all that decision making and soul torturing done, we also toured a bunch of preschools closer to our house and picked one where both the boys and this mama are going to be HAPPY! If you ever need help picking a preschool, Sean and I have seen EVERYTHING, so feel free to ask!
Due to spacing issues, Bauer will start at this new school in a couple weeks and Bennett will have to wait for a spot, probably beginning of summer. We are moving him to the top of the waiting list by moving Bauer now, so yes another decision was made that this would be the best solution. Here’s comes having the kids in three different school for a few months!
Sometimes it gets harder before it gets way easier…prayers for our morning and evening drop off and pick ups!
Maybe with all this said and done, my brain can take a break for planning my kids future for a second…lol! And I’m afraid to admit that I realize that this is the easiest it will ever be…
