School for D, M's mornings with me

School is off to a great start for D; she's not as tired as I had anticipated, although she has fallen asleep twice on the bus ride home. Stories from school come out slowly, a piece at a time, and she tells different (though not conflicting) details to Hubby than she does to me. Names of classmates, descriptions of activities, songs, rules, routines. Among my favourites: the daily report of who got to be the "chef" (leader) that morning. D is anxiously awaiting the day she will be named chef. Typical eldest child.

It amazes me how fearless she seems to be. Her whole life up to this point has been spent mainly with me, although she's often been looked after by other people, including family, Sunday school teachers, babysitters, nursery volunteers, etc. And all of a sudden, she's off on a school bus five days of the week, getting used to new routines and ways of doing things, in English one week and French the next, and she's fine with it all.

Something that I quite love about Catholic school is that they start the day with prayer, and (I think, from what D has told me) they say grace before snack time. D has informed me of the need to have "nice praying hands" (held flat together, not with fingers interlaced), and that's led to some conversations about why we close our eyes and put our hands together, and whether the exact way we place our hands is as important as focusing our attention on God when we talk to him. I anticipate lots of conversations like this, and I look forward to them! It's a neat way to explain why we believe what we do, and why we act the way we do.

In the meantime, M and I have been greatly enjoying our mornings together. Her first choice from the joujouthèque was, not surprisingly, a loud, somewhat obnoxious, ride-on toy. Besides play group and Wednesday morning Bible study, we've started going to a Mom & Tot yoga class at a studio relatively nearby. It's a nice half-hour walk straight from the bus stop, and I get more of a workout from the walk than I do from the class. M sort of participates, but it's only been two weeks so far. On the other days, we go to the park, read books at home, and do chores. It's really neat to watch her play by herself. She's started narrating her toys' actions, interspersed with disjointed bits of songs, just like D did at that age, and continues to do! "Hey teddy bear, whatcher doooing up there? Come down now. H-I-J-K-Q-R-S-T-U-V-DW all wet." And so on. This kid cracks me up, and I love spending time with her!

Attempting to start a trend of wearing sunglasses around one's midsection