Update in general

"They wrote back." That was G-'s subject line of the email forwarded from Sprout. I got one too. Dig:

"Please rest assured that we have read your email and appreciate you taking the time and effort to share your concerns with us. We understand that you are disappointed with the recent changes to The Good Night Show, and we too are saddened that we had to make this difficult decision. While we recognize that change is difficult for young children, we are committed to finding a new host for The Good Night Show who will build a strong and sustainable connection to our Sprout children and families."

I, of course, wrote back:

"I am truly disappointed in PBS. I thought PBS was open-minded. The people that come across Sesame Street, for instance, do all of them have excellent work histories? I still haven't heard an acceptable answer to the question "why is ok for George Carlin & Alec Baldwin to be role models for our children, but not Melanie?" Don't tell me because they don't appear in the stories because Alec Baldwin is in the Thomas the Tank Engine movie. Melanie is lovable and childlike herself, what she did 7 years ago does not matter to me or my children. I just know we're all going to miss her "Let's make a craft" song and her "Goodnight" song. (Shame on you if you let anyone else sing them.)
I think you have a made a terrible mistake in firing Melanie. If Melanie does not come back, PBS and any channels affiliated with PBS will not be shown in my house again. I will not have my children exposed to such an obviously conservative station. Now you've alienated the right and the left. Who do you have left?"

I'm beginning to lose hope. But I'm serious. I will not play PBS in my house again, and I will not send them money or support them in any way. When I've had a bad experience somewhere or with someone, everyone I know hears about it, and I never frequent the establishment again. (I haven't shopped at Kmart in 3 years even though it's closer than Target, and it's a grocery store too.) But enough of my little rant...

In other news: I've been researching elementary schools for Say-say. He'll be going next year so I thought I'd look into it. Ok, I don't know how other states do it, but I have to have him registered at his "base" school in January in order to apply in February (one week and one week only in February) to send him to a "magnet" school. I've found two that excite me. One offers "international studies" which includes 5 different language programs. The other is a Montessori school. An actual public Montessori school. I'm all a-twitter. I really think he's going to need something challenging that's going to help him learn his way. He's a very artistic child; he draws everyday on his Magna Doodle. If I can get G- to help me get some of his pictures up, you'll be able to see the intricate detail. His latest is drawing songs. Drawing songs! The things that come out of his mouth just amaze me sometimes. I was quizzing him tonight at story time before bed. He can easily count to 10 (not just count out loud, but is able to identify numbers on sight and count the objects to see how many there are). He easily knows his colors (had to explain what gray was, but he's got it now). Now we're working on letters. A lady at work told me he had trouble with reading because he's had so much trouble speaking. He's done so well in speech, I think it will be a non-issue soon enough.

Well, Anderson Cooper's on the tv, let me find out what's going on now.
I've had too much of a thinking day today to come up with anything clever tonight. (Quick poll: how many of you thought the last post came off as a bit pretentious? [me])