Elena's Last Day of Kindergarten

It seemed like this day would not come - everyone else has been out of school for a while, and now that it is officially completed, the summer will fly- for many reasons. One is just keeping them busy. One is that we are moving. The final reason, I guess, is that summer always flies! I have truly felt grateful for the lush, greenness of these last few weeks. I feel like I am more conscious of the heavy, humid air and all the changes that are about to swirl around us. I feel a bit like we are being swept up and moved along - apparently I am a little more planted here than I thought.
Elena's last day of kindergarten has ended a week of bringing home artfolios (I wondered what she was doing all year in there!), math workbooks, and journals. It all feels bittersweet as I have dropped her off a hundred times and more, watching her run to the kindergarten door, her arms out in front of her with her giant backpack slogging side-to-side, looking like it might tip her over. How she never, ever looked back once she left the car or hardly even said goodbye as she climbed out. It was all about the friends on the other side. And then her eyes searching a bit nervously at pick-up time, wondering if I would be there, always a little worried that I might not be. And, truthfully, I was a few minutes late enough times that I got to see her beautiful face framed in the window between the kindergarten classroom doors, and then see her disappear and come rushing out the side door.
I got to know the kids in her class by listening to her talk about them and by going in each Wednesday to read to the class. Papa got to go a few times, and Meme went once, too. I began to enjoy very much going to the class and seeing their intent little faces and hearing Evan say, "Hey, you got your haircut," and on the last day, "Not again!" So maybe I was the only parent who went almost every week, but I felt sad when I would ask Elena if any parent came to read to the class and she would say, "No, no one came!" If I'm not home from work to do things like that, I don't know why I am!

Elena did not want to stop for this picture as we were walking toward the school, but she did stop and give me a bit of a grin. Just for a second.

I have seen so many changes in Elena this last year and I have been amazed at how fast she has learned. One of the biggest things this spring has been the interest in friends. The neighborhood kids have become quite a bunch - playing "adventures," swordfights, tag, a water fight a few days ago, and making mud pies (one of my favorites.) Some of the kids, especially Maren, like finding bugs and collecting them. Worms, moths, butterflies, roly-polys... whatever they can find. This stage of childhood is brimming with discovery and it's fun to be a parent watching it unfold. It is also pulling at my heartstrings, watching them fly farther from the nest and needing us less - though there is still a lot to be taught and a lot for me to learn, too. That's what it's all about, yes? I'm not sure who is learning more from whom :)

The pictures below are from an after-school celebration today at a fellow kindergartner's house. The kiddos had a great time playing freeze game, drawing, a short stint outside in the cool rain and upstairs... 

 Everyone looks so happy! Love this~

 I had watched Olivia and Maren sit next to each other and scoot, scoot, scoot their chairs closer together. So cute! 

May 2013

 Unbelievably gorgeous spring on our street

 Maren stopped taking naps last October. Right before we went to Hawaii, she started napping again. Of course, that went away with our trip, but once in a while, when she is super exhausted, she will still nap. And if you put her in the car she will be out in two minutes!! 

On this day she was calling me from her room (so I thought!) where she was supposed to be having quiet time. I was in the basement with Elena, who was asleep. All of a sudden, Maren got quiet. Mother's intuition told me I had better go check on her. This is what I found. I do not know how one falls asleep on the stairs... but I guess if you are tired enough! And, yes, the child has no clothes on.

Mother's Day presentation at preschool 

 Elena and classmates

Playdate at Naomi's house, a classmate of Elena's 

 A little pre-summer fun with the sprinkler. These girls could not wait to get their swimsuits on. They spent a couple hours out there. I was surprised it entertained them for the whole afternoon. Arizona girls at heart. 

 Isn't she beautiful?

Like sister, like sister. 

At our new favorite park in Morton Grove

A late evening trip to Home Depot to find some spring flowers. I love it when they let me put their hair in pigtails and here E actually has a ponytail. SO cute!

Baby and Jocelyn like to travel with us. These sisters are great mommies already.

Poor Maren... this no nap thing is just exhausting. This is just sad, she looks so pitiful! And she looks like Al Bundy with her hands in her pants, but her "security blanket" or alternative to thumb sucking is a finger in the belly button. So that is what she is doing here. 

 Elena with Miss Diane at her preschool graduation on May 17. I don't think they quite grasp that it is over... she did not want to go! Even though there was ice cream! Somehow the time after spring break got difficult for Elena at school, though we never found out why. She just did not want to go anymore. 

 Maren, Elena, Mia and Kailey from preschool

Elena hooked onto Mia the first week or so of school because Mia is Maliyah's, Elena's best friend's, nickname. Mia just adored Maren, was always trying to kiss her and touch her, which Maren never liked! And then one day Mia called Maren a baby - oh, boy, the wrong thing to say! 

 A little too much fun with chocolate pudding... and one of Elena's famous faces 

We love to dance in the kitchen. Elena usually likes to run in circles... but this time she let me dip her. Their favorite song is "Springsteen." Wonder why. 

I also got to spend 48 hours in Phoenix in May for a trial. I did not get to spend near as much time visiting people as I would have liked. The trial took longer than expected. I was so happy to be able to go and visit those I could. It felt like going home and it made me quite homesick for Phoenix and Arizona. And, of course, all my family and friends, not to mention my old job and colleagues. I did, however, get to see all the nonsense surrounding the Jodi Arias trial firsthand, as that was the building where the trial was. Quite a spectacle.

May was a good month. 

Elena and Extend the Day

Today was a little bit of a difficult day for me. Not for Elena or Maren, of course! Not anything that I should freak about, but it was still a first! Elena starting preschool last fall was a huge transition. A very difficult transition and it took a long time for her to be comfortable there. In the last few months she has still been telling me that she does not want to go to school, that she wants to stay home with me and Maren. However, last week Michael's mom told me that she was planning to enroll him in the Extend the Day program where the kids go to the basement and play in the mat room, have lunch, do a craft and then play in the dance room with Ms. Debbie after her morning preschool is finished. I told Elena about this when she asked me what we were talking about. Ever since then, she has been asking to go, too. I told her I would talk to Kirk. She did not forget. She did not forget that it was Wednesdays. She told me this morning that Papa said that it was ok. She got herself ready for school in record time. Socks, shoes, coat and all. She had made her own sandwich when I came downstairs from getting dressed. She packed it in her backpack and even helped Maren get her coat. She got in the car and buckled herself in. These are all things that she usually needs a lot of coaxing to do... getting out the door is not easy in the mornings.

Today she was ready

Not always easy to get pictures of Elena as she is rarely still so this is a little fuzzy.

But I was in awe.

Once we got to preschool she told Miss Diane that she was doing the afternoon class. Maren got in the sand table and it took me awhile to get her to leave. When I did, I told her to tell Ms. Kristie and Ms. Diane goodbye, and she turned around and told each of them separately, goodbye. Ms. Diane says she is ready for preschool and it would seem so!

Maren playing allowed me to watch Elena a little bit. She sat right down next to Michael at a craft table and started coloring. Kailey, another little girl in her class, asked her, "Can you write your name, Lanie?" "Yes. See." Elena picks up a marker and writes her name. She has been working on her name for a while and she asked me two days ago if I would help her with her "Ns". So we worked on it for about five minutes yesterday and she sat right down this morning and wrote this.

Once we got home, she seemed to go back and forth about whether or not she liked the afternoon program. She asked if I could stay with her next time, she asked if I could come back and walk her to the basement, she asked if she could bring her lunch in her cupcake purse next time. She asked if I signed her up for next week. She said she did not want to go back because there are too many kids in the class. (There are several kids from a 4-5 year old class, too.) She said going to school was the best part of her day today. She has actually said that for the last week-and-a-half. (We usually ask each other at dinnertime what were the best and least favorite parts of our days.) Overall, I think she likes it. And if Michael starts going, she will be all-in!

I have to mention a few more funny things she said to me today. First, this morning she asked me why she does not have a pretty name like Maren. "I want my name to be Maren." I am not sure where this is coming from and she brought it up again tonight at bedtime. I told her that she has a beautiful name and that I chose her name for her long before she was born. I also told her what her name means: Light. She stopped talking about it, but I remember many of the names that I wished I had, too. But it did not begin at age 4!

Another thing she has stated a few times lately is: "I have 3 Es, 2 Ns, 2 As and 2 Ls in my name." She is taking "Lanie" and "Elena" and counting the letters. Where this came from, I do not know. But it amazed me.

Tonight at bedtime, I was laying next to Elena in her bed and she kept asking for the little ladybug that lights up. She and Maren take turns keeping it for the night. Elena: "Why does Maren have the ladybug?" (She knew it was her turn.) "Because you have me." "Oh." I cannot get in bed with Maren; she is still in her crib. "But, Mom, you don't light up." I laaaaughed. She giiiiiggled. "You are not a ladybug, Mom. You are a people. You are a kid. You don't light up." Oh, LanieBird. You do!