Emma Graduates Preschool

Okay, let's get something straight right off the bat: YES - I am crying as I type this blog entry, and YES - I'm feeling a bit sappy and sentimental. So sue me...it's not every day your baby graduates preschool.

We just returned from Emma's graduation ceremony, and I am once again reminded of how incredibly lucky we are that in this enormous city, we somehow stumbled upon a small, unique, remarkable community of like-minded parents and teachers. Emma has benefited so much from her time at Hoyne Street Playgroup, and we will miss the friends we have made there. Tonight was a great and memorable ending to such an important chapter in Em's life.

Before any diplomas were dispatched, the kids put on a play for the parents. Led by their teacher Jake, the play seemed to involve superheroes, greek gods, and saving the world. Truly riveting drama. Sophie apparently enjoyed the show immensely, seeing as how she kept chanting "My Emma!" and waddling directly into the action. (Much to Mommy's chagrin might I add, as I was forced to crawl on hands and knees in the wet, muddy grass to retrieve her.) Then we had a little ceremony for the eight graduates, and Emma received a diploma, a custom-made tooth box, a yearbook, a T-shirt and a well-deserved round of applause. The festivities wrapped up with a big potluck dinner. Em gave each of her teachers a big hug and a picture she had drawn just for them. It hasn't even begun to sink in with her that she will no longer be seeing these three special people on a regular basis, and I shudder to think how much she is going to miss them in the coming weeks.

But enough already with all the touchy-feely blabberty-bloo. (I told you I was weepy!) Here are a few of the evening's photos.

Em receiving her diploma from beloved teacher Miss Louise...

Hamming for the camera during her play, with her teacher Jake whooping it up at right and her teacher Ben in the far left background...

This is the best shot I could get of the inside of Emma's tooth box. (Sorry, I know it's blurry.) Her teacher Ben hand-crafted the tooth boxes out of wood and then drew a caricature of each kid inside. I love the personal and individual touch to the boxes, and hopefully Emma will treasure the uniqueness of this gift as she gets older.

And here's the graduate with her three closest preschool friends...Ezra (little mutual crush going on here, I think)...

Gabriel, whom she has known since the age of three months...

And the oft-talked-about and fiercely adored Willa Marie.

I'm going to go read Em's yearbook and have a good cry now. Good Lord, I've no idea how I'm going to make it through the first day of kindergarten.

Little Mamas

Emma came home from school today bearing two cheese rinds and declared that they were birthday presents for her baby dolls. Apparently, Baby Doll (yes, that's her actual name) and Charleete are turning 42 years old, and each desire nothing more than a crusty rind of cheese. So of course, I helped Emma celebrate. I gave both dolls a birthday kiss, thanked them for being part of our family, and then slyly threw out their increasingly smelly gifts after Emma had gone to bed. We shall see what repercussions this betrayal brings tomorrow. I am armed with homemade chocolate chip cookies should bribery be needed.

In other baby news, Chris and I overheard Sophie telling her doll tonight, "I luvs you!" Cutest thing ever.

Chatty Kathy...er, Sophie

We got a new phone a couple days ago. Apparently, that's as good as a train set or dollhouse around here. Let the playing commence! (In case you can't hear it, the phone beeps at Sophie toward the end...that's the sound she's reacting to.)

Sample Conversation Today

Em: "When can I swing on a vine and then jump and slide down the bark of a tree? When I'm six years old?"
Me: "Um, well...I'm not sure. I don't think there's necessarily an age requirement on something like that. Actually, I'm thinking the answer to that may be 'Never.'"
Em: "NEVER?! Why? I'll be really careful and you can spot on me."
Me: "Spot you?"
Em: "Yeah, like on the monkey bars."
Me: "Well, that's a great idea, but the thing is... it's kinda hard to find vines in Chicago."
Em: "Oh. Where do vines live, Mama?"
Me: "In the jungle. And jungles are really far away."
Em: "Hmm. So I guess we have to go on an airplane then."
Me: "To find a vine?"
Em: "Yes, to find a vine."
Me: "You want to go on an airplane to find a vine?"
Em: "Yes."
Me: "I don't think that's going to happen."
Em: "Wait, I've got a great idea! When we go on an airplane to Florida, we can visit a jungle and jump on a vine!"
Me: "I don't think there are any jungles in Florida."
[pause]
Em: "Okay. I'm gonna think about this and get back to you tomorrow."
Me: "Okay, sounds good."
Em: "You think about it too, Mommy. It's very important to me."
Me: "I'll do my best, Em."
Em: "That's all I can ask, Mama. That's all I can ask."

Support PBS!

We had a great Sunday morning at the WTTW Fun and Run, which supports PBS programming. The event was very crowded, but the girls seemed to have a good time. They especially loved running into some of their favorite TV friends! (Well, I should say that Emma enjoyed the Sesame Street characters, greeting them both with a big hug. Sophie clung to me for dear life the minute either tried to engage with her in any way. However, once she was safely back in her stroller, she waved and shouted "Buh-bye!" very enthusiastically.)

Our Blondies

The girls continue to transform into little ladies right before my eyes. There are mornings after we awake that they actually appear noticeably larger to me, as if they've slept in a bizarrely restorative state that has aged them 12 weeks instead of 12 hours. Developmental milestones are so frequent that it's often difficult to record or even retain them because they happen so damn quickly, often causing me to wonder, "How/when did they learn to do that?" Just this week I witnessed Emma holding a door open for a stranger, realized Sophie knows the color blue, observed Em totaling the value of several coins as she plunked them into her piggy bank, and heard Sophie say "Excuse me!" after stumbling in front of a woman on the sidewalk. The amount of physical, emotional and intellectual changes they undergo in a single day is astounding.

Part of me wants to scream STOP! every time I notice how big they are getting, but mostly I just hope I don't miss the next time they morph into something - or someone - new. It's a gift and a thrill to be home with them every day, to be the first to recognize and celebrate every accomplishment, every change. But noticing each new word/thought/skill is not enough for me. When they wake up looking or acting different, I feel cheated. I don't like wondering, "How did they learn that?" or "When did they get so big?" Selfishly, I want to see as much as I can of the process.

Here they are today, both wearing new dresses and feeling oh-so-proud of themselves. They look so...well, so grown up to me in this photo. It's as if the camera captured a glimpse into their future selves. Possible? Who knows. I just can't wait to see what layer of themselves they uncover next.

No More Bloody Knees!

Until Sophie manages to run more than three feet without wiping out, this is the only way she's leaving the house...

Odds and Ends from the Week

Monday
We often listen to the audiobook Babar while in the car. (My idol Meryl Streep is the narrator...good call, Gigi and PawPaw. A gift that makes Mommy AND the kiddies happy.) Emma loves the story and music, but she always covers her ears during the "scary part" when a hunter kills Babar's mother. Of course, upon first hearing the tale, she asked WHY the hunter kills Babar's mother. I tried to present all the hunter's possible motives as neutrally and thoroughly as possible instead of following my gut and screaming, "Because the hunter is EVIL!" at the top of my lungs. So today, apropo of nothing (as usual), Emma announces that she wants to be a hunter when she grows up. Surprised, I inquire as to why. She explains, "Because if I'm the hunter then I can kill other hunters before they try to kill me." This kid is wayyyyyy too smart for her own good.

Tuesday
Sophie has a crush. Her first boy crush! At the gym nursery, she keeps following around a cute little blond fella named Nicholas. Apparently, she never leaves his side. When I ask Nicholas if he likes having a shadow, he very politely replies, "No, I don't. Please take her away now. Thank you."

Wednesday
Emma is excited to show Sophie and me how far she can climb on the monkey bars, so we stop by a local playground. However, when faced with the actual deed, performance anxiety sets in. Emma pushes off the ladder, dangles from the first bar by both arms for about 4 seconds, and then screams, "Help me, I'm going to fall! Hurry hurry hurry or I'm going to DIE!"

Thursday
Yes, the below photo is a beautific shot of my two precious terrors. But there's another reason I am posting it. Check out the youngest's left leg.
She took quite a spill on the sidewalk earlier in the day and now has ugly scratches all up and down her shin. Sadly, this state of distress is pretty standard for Sophie lately. If you try to carry her, even for a second, she loudly demands, "Down! Walk!" But she doesn't walk. She runs...and falls down approximately 15 times a day. Hence, her knees are taking quite a beating and Neosporin is making a lot of money off the Mathews family.

Friday
When I went to retrieve the girls at the gym nursery after my spinning class, all the teachers started giggling at the sight of me. For no reason. I was perplexed, to say the least. Finally one of them takes me aside, out of earshot of the kids, and tells me that earlier Emma started crying because her bracelet got caught on the hairs of her arm. While a teacher tried to undo the bracelet as gently as possible, Sophie started shouting "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" over and over again until Emma stopped crying, at which point Sophie patted Emma's arm and said, "All better." The teachers thought this was hilarious. I also thought this was hilarious, although I was blown away by Sophie's language. Where would she get that from? Chris and I are both so careful, and I've never heard her utter anything remotely like that word. The final piece of the puzzle hit me on the way home when Sophie fell down (yet again), skinning her knee and announcing her new boo-boo. She was saying "Ouchie" when Emma hurt herself, and the teachers were right - when she says this word, it DOES sound a lot like "Oh shit." I'm relieved that my daughter doesn't yet have a potty mouth, but I don't think I'll tell the teachers the truth. It brought them such joy to hear Sophie supposedly swearing like a sailor.

Hocking Hills

We just finished an amazing week in Hocking Hills, Ohio with our dear friends Chris & Claire and their beautiful daughters Charlotte and Maggie. I doubt we'll go back to that particular area again - although the countryside was beautiful, there wasn't really much to do nearby. (In fact, the most popular outing of the week was our visit to a general store in the middle of nowhere to check out a 40-year collection of lunch boxes belonging to a very colorful local who kept slipping outside for hurried gulps of Wild Turkey.) But we had a nice cabin, a big backyard and wonderful company, so we were quite content to hang out at The Merlot (our cabin's name) for most of the trip.

My girls were in heaven, each adoringly following their slightly older Dippel girl counterpart. Chris and I were in heaven, hanging out with two of our favorite people during lazy days with the kids and late nights of trash talking and game playing. (I believe Small World, Dominion, Space Alert and Pandemic were the four biggest hits of the week. Whackity-smackity-doo.)

I've never had seven days fly by so quickly. Until next year...

The girls playing outside with Claire.

Emma and Charlotte having a pillow fight.

Sophie and Maggie - after about 12 hours around Maggie, Sophie suddenly decided she needed a pacifier too and proceeded to use one the rest of the week.

The girls miniature golfing.

The Hocking Hills gang, just before we said adieu and I burst into tears.

Our Little Monkey

We just got back from Ohio yesterday, and we had such an amazing time. I'll write more once all our pictures are accumulated.

In the meantime, here's a video of Emma utilizing her newly-learned climbing skills. (She recently had a very illuminating playdate with a new friend, Olivia. Em and Olivia will be in the same kindergarten class this fall, and Olivia LOVES to climb. She taught Em all sorts of cool new things.)