Ever since we decided to send Emma to school, I've been worried about the vaccination issue. Public schools in Missouri are required to accept a religious exemption, but private schools don't have to. Her future school says in their handbook that all students must bring their vaccine records to school the first day to be looked over by the school nurse, and those who are not up to date will have to go home and can only return once they are current on their shots. Not very promising for those who do not vaccinate, obviously. There is not another school in the area where we'd feel comfortable sending Emma, nor would we agree to give her any shots, so I was anticipating this becoming an issue with no easy solution. Steve said if they told us no, we could offer to present our case to the school board or something, and while I'm sure we could convince them that we did lots of research and did not make this decision lightly and are not just being negligent parents, that still does not mean that they have to accept her into their school. So, Monday I mustered all my courage and made the call to the school to ask about it. I said we were hoping to send our daughter there in the fall, but have chosen not to vaccinate her, and were wondering what their policy is on that. The woman on the phone said, "Oh, that's not a problem at all. This has come up before. You just write on a piece of paper that you don't vaccinate, have your doctor sign it, and have your child bring it to school." Hooray! I can hardly believe it's going to be that easy, but I am certainly glad it is! When I expressed my relief, the lady said that vaccinating is a very personal decision, and one that should definitely be left up to the parents. Amen to that!

We (okay, I) have made another big decision around here, and that is that Emma is not going to nurse anymore after Easter. I don't think I'm up to nursing three at once, and I think my milk supply is slowly dwindling and Noah really deserves all the milk that is there right now. She is sad about it, but I can't say that I am. Yesterday, out of nowhere, she said to me, "Nursing is my favorite thing. It is just so heavenly to me." It makes me sad to take that away from her, and a little guilty that I have failed at child-led weaning when it really is something that is important to me. Still, many days I am just SO nursed-out and I am very much looking forward to only nursing one baby - at least for the next five months or so.