First sleepover

Last night, Stella had her first sleepover at a friend's house. While packing the night before, she suddenly became overcome with emotion and expressed how scared she was. Fears included being hungry and not liking the food, being homesick and not being able to sleep. We were able to talk it all through and, while she naturally remained a bit nervous, she also was a little excited. I'm happy to report that though she felt a bit homesick, she sang "You are my sunshine" (the song I have sung to her every night of her life) to herself and pulled through. Although she remains adamantly anti-sleepaway camp, it was a big success!

Mommies are for....

Dear Vivian: Last Saturday you and Stella woke up early and decided to watch a movie. You do not have such a long attention span for movies but, it being early on a weekend, I kind of hoped maybe I could snag an extra hour or so of sleep. However, after approximately fifteen minutes you came traipsing into our bedroom. You woke me up but I was able to convince you that we should cuddle for a little while before getting up. You climbed into our bed and snuggled in. Your feet were FREEEEEZING COLD, like little tiny icicles. I shrieked (quietly...so as not to wake Daddy) and you giggled. I told you to keep your feet on me and I buried them between my legs to make them warm. You asked me why I was doing that and I told you, "That's what Moms are for." Without missing a beat you replied, "Moms are for everything!" I'm really happy you think so. I love you so much. Love, Mama

Super Soccer Star!

Dear Stella, Your soccer season ended on Sunday with the Pink Puppies winning all but one game and you being responsible for many goals and assists. Your love of soccer really exploded this fall and you had such fun participating on both the tournament and the regular team. Your regular team was named the Pink Puppies and it was particularly amusing when you played teams like the Fireballs of Doom and the Puppies kicked their butt! You are very competitive and were always acutely aware of the score, of who on the other team was good, etc. And you also really just love playing and cannot get out on the field fast enough. You would wait impatiently for halftime to be over so you could get back out to play. I was happy to see a lot come together for you this year in terms of your soccer skills. It felt like there was some good groundwork laid over the past few years of Coach Ryan and Super Soccer Stars, etc. and it suddenly came together for you and you were able to apply it to actually playing. You were also on a tournament team this fall and you and Daddy traveled out of the city on two weekends to compete. On that team you got more of a taste of the competition because you played teams that were better than you. In one of the tournaments, you actually played U-9 players rather than U-8 but Dad said you were still really able to hold your own. You are super fast and we talk sometimes about how you can "turn on your wheels" when the other team has the ball and you need to beat them down the field. Grandma and Grandpa were big soccer fans too and came to nearly every game. I know you identify yourself as an athlete and being strong and fast and athletic is important to you and it makes all of us really happy to just watch you play. Love, Mommy

Lessons from an Eight Year Old

Last week, Stella decided to teach me about cactus plants which she must be learning about in science. She told me that if you cut open a cactus, it is filled with water. I said that I didn't know that but cacti must be good at retaining water because they thrive in the desert where there isn't a lot of water. She replied, "That's true, there aren't a lot of stores in the desert."

Oh No May Be the End of an Era

Tonight as I was putting the girls to bed, I sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". As I finished the song Stella asked, "Mom, do you believe in the tooth fairy?" Naturally I said that I did. She replied, "But what if you've been putting the money under my pillow and all my life I didn't know." She went on to tell me that one of her friends doesn't believe in the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus. She asked me to swear that it wasn't me and David but, because Vivian was in the room and it was past bedtime I just said that we would have to talk about it in the morning. Sigh. Why do they have to grow up so quickly?