The fun part about being a parent
My four-year-old daughter has been saying and doing some really interesting things lately. On Friday night, she and I were leaving to go have dinner together while my husband stayed home with the baby. As we were heading down the stairs, she stuck a purple crayon between her first two fingers, put it up to her lips, inhaled, took it away from her lips, and exhaled. I stood there in shock for a few seconds and then said, "Um, what was that?" Her answer? "It wasn't a cigarette, Mommy."
The other day she said something about syphilis. "Where did you hear that word, sweetie?" "On Friends!"
A dear friend of ours came to visit last weekend. Our daughter said this: "Hi Ashley! Let's play What Not to Wear. I'll be Stacy and you be Clinton. Mommy, you come in and show us your new clothes."
We got her progress report from school the other day (yeah, one of the great things about private school is the more you pay, the fewer days the kids actually go to school - all of those holidays that make 3-day weekends for the rest of the known universe are magically 4- and 5-day weekends at her school, making child care a super fun challenge for us working moms - and the less likely you are to actually see GRADES for your kids. Instead they get long narratives from the teacher about what interesting characters they are). One of my favorite parts said the following: "[P] participates enthusiastically in class and always has something meaningful to offer. Her favorite activites are singing, dancing and twirling around." Yup, that's my girl! The twirler! But it was really exciting to read how well she has adapted to being taught in French over 80% of the time and that she is able to form short sentences in French. So cool!
I shouldn't leave the baby out of this happy post either. Her latest accomplishments are flipping over from back to front and sometimes front to back, being able to hold a toy in both her hands, sometimes managing to put the binky into her mouth all by herself, tons of smiling, and within the past couple of days, laughing! With sound!
The doctor said we can start her on solid foods anytime now. We are trying to stave that off as long as possible because of how insanely messy it is. We're going to my aunt's wedding at the beginning of August so we'll be out of town for 5 days. I'm thinking I do not want to deal with baby food then, so we're targeting mid-August for the start of the fun that is baby's first solid foods. On the one hand, having been through this already, I know how goopy and gross it can be, but on the other hand, it is the next sign of her growing up! So fast, as they always say, but it's a welcome change. I love babies, and I've loved every minute (OK, most minutes) of both of my girls' baby times, but now that I have a big girl, I know how amazing it is to watch the person that these babies become, and I cannot wait to see who this second little lady is going to be.
OK, I'm off to bathe the big girl so she'll be all clean for her first day of camp tomorrow! Woo-hoo!
