Clipping along

Life has finally resumed some normalcy after the renovations, trip to Wisconsin, family visit and a birthday party. Normal still involves a lot of running around and juggling but we have a new perspective on how tame that seems now.

Cady is involved in a little love triangle at school. On one hand there is Javier. Javier is five and was one of her first steady school friends. In January things started to shift a bit and Cady came home talking about David instead of Javi. "Davie likes the Wiggles, David does a Wiggle Dance. David. David. David". David on more than one occassion has planted a big kiss on her at the end of the day. The most recent was when I had to pick her up early for a Dr. appointment. David yelled across the classroom, "Cady, wait! I have to kiss you" and comes running across the room and plants a big one on her. Well, the past two weeks she has started talking about Javi again and Mr. Polo told me that last week there was an actual fight between the two boys and she was smack in the middle of it. Both boys were competing for her attention by drawing her pictures and it got heated when Cady only gave one of the boys a picture in return. Ah, young love.


Tonight Cady and I had a date. I bought tickets to see a neighborhood theater production of Wizard of Oz. I wasn't expecting much considering that last time we went when Grandma was here Cady said that her favorite part of the show was when it was over. We dressed up, put on a little make-up (glitter hair spray for Cady) and I could tell she felt so special. We parked at the show and walked up 32nd Avenue for dinner. Several people passed by and made comments to Cady about how pretty she looked and I could see her walking just a little taller after each compliment. She chose Chinese food so we had a nice dinner together and then walked back to the show. What a hoot! The way the play was set-up was a circular platform in the middle of the room surrounded by just six tables with eight chairs each. Very intimate and extremely close. I was a little worried about just how close because Cady was already having a lot of anxiety about the wicked witch. Well, the show started and the fun began. Because it was so intimate and because Cady made no attempt to use her "library voice" everyone from the actors to the audience got to share in Cady's innermost thoughts. During one scene when the trees were throwing apples at Dorothy and the Scarecrow, the Scarecrow missed the apple and it rolled under our table. I didn't even notice that Cady crawled under the table to get it until well into another scene when the apple goes flying onto the stage. And my all time favorite Cady comment of the evening was this:

Cady: Why is he walking like that? (referring to the tin man who was walking stiffly)
Me: It's because he is made of tin
Cady: (Pause) Am I going to look like that when I'm 10???

It was a great night. Cady laughed harder than I've ever heard her laugh (aside from being tickled) and she had so many comments during the show. The owner of the theater company approached us during intermission and said, "I don't know what's better. The play or the cute comments that your daughter is making" and this woman was seated at the table furthest from ours, yikes! Cady was terrified of the witch and spent all the witch scenes in my lap. She hugged Dorothy after the play. She sulked because she wants the show to be "open" every day and she didn't ever want it to be over. And because the show actually ended almost two hours past her bedtime she had the funniest meltdown during the ride home. It was pure tiredness and she was completely losing it in the back seat over nothing.

So that's about it for us. Naturally I'm still waiting to hear something (anything) about my position for next year. Meanwhile I'm just wrapping up the school year, getting my data reports completed, planning summer activties and enjoying the thought of spending more undivided kid time soon.