He yawns like a cat. He stretches like a cat. At this point, I am convinced that Bub is actually a cat.

I’ve spent most of the last day beginning to work on the kids’ course and goal notes for the next homeschool year since I want to get that out of the way… I like getting things out of the way whenever I can, so this works to my benefit. So far I know which books we’ll begin using once they’ve finished with the textbooks they are currently on, and I’ve written out developmentally appropriate goals for each subject that I intend to teach after the midway point in the year. We functionally homeschool year-round so that if the kids are sick, have a lot of appointments on one day, or need a mental health day (“mental health day”, however you phrase that), they can take those days and we can make them up later on in the year. The kids always make up the days that they need to because school is, as it has been framed, a positive experience in our house.

In a few weeks, I’ll write up progress notes so I have more than a few sentences to summarize for each kid!

Bub is now several inches taller than me, and as a preteen is beginning to put on a bit of weight — he’s not overweight though, not in the least — and I want to know how this happened. Wasn’t he a baby yesterday?

Monster was never this little, and I will go to the grave refusing to believe that he was, damn it.