Archive for the 'parenting' Category

The end of an era

Almost five years to the day later, Mollybear’s time at Woodland Montessori has come to a close. And, as I walked to the car after dropping her off for her last morning, the emotions that come with that hit me hard. I knew I’d feel sad thinking about the passage of time and lament losing the cocoon-feeling of Woodland, but I didn’t know that it would make me feel a little lonely.

I got in the car and watched the younger children play on the playground and I watched  teachers Molly had had in the past mill about, chatting with other parents who still had years left with the school to enjoy. And I thought about how my family is just a little blip in the fabric of the school, but how these five years have left a deep impression on the three of us that we will surely feel for a lifetime.

I thought back to the decision to choose Woodland all of those years ago, letting go of our other option, and jumping into this expensive, inconvenient, beautiful wonderland. I was nervous, but felt so much joy and gratitude that we were able to be a part of and participate in this thoughtful community. And while there have been bumps along the way (mostly because I don’t deal with any change well), the past five years have been more than we could have hoped for. We will miss you, Woodland. Thanks for everything.

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Mollyism

Molly has been working hard on her joke repertoire lately. She’s had a lot of misses, but some pretty great hits. For example, a couple of weeks ago when it had gotten really chilly again (read: snowstorm) she declared that spring had gone on spring break. I thought that was pretty clever. But this morning, she truly knocked it out of the park.

Let me set the scene. I was grabbing a Coke from the fridge and she noticed that there was then only one remaining. She knows that I can become annoyed when this happens because the extra Cokes are in the basement and I just do not go down there. So, Molly dramatically called the sole Coke to my attention with, “Mommy, do you see that there’s only one Coke left?!?” And then Aaron let out a sigh, commenting that he would get to the restocking later and blah blah blah.

But Molly was having none of it. She exited stage right and declared the whole situation a:

“COKE-tastrophe!”

New experiences

Molly didn’t have school today because winter break began. And now that she’s a kindergartener, we have more options to send her to programming in town on days the schools are closed. So today she went to the Aldo Leopold Nature Center’s day camp program. She wasn’t super psyched about it, but she was a trooper and tolerated the idea. But when I picked her up after 5 and she was one of only two kids left, I kinda panicked. I asked her, “How was your day?” She said, “Awesome!” She and the remaining girl – who had to be at least 8 — gave each other hugs and discussed if they were returning for future days. When M heard the girl was coming back on Jan 2, she asked if she could, too. As we were leaving, I asked her to tell me some specifics about the day. She said, “It was too amazing to talk about.”

Day X

So, on Day 19 we fell a bit off of our Monster 30-day plan to be our best, calm selves and get our lives in order. This Administration and, well, life proved too much for us. Instead we said screw it to the mess in the house and the House and everywhere, had some nighttime cocktails and binge-watched some telly. It was cathartic in its own right.

And now, ten plus days later, the house is still a mess, the chaos in Washington is bigger than before and I’m dealing with a flood of emotions at having just celebrated Mollybear’s fifth birthday. With every one of these birthdays – or any milestone really (like, for example, she’s taken to saying, “Oh. My God,” which has to be a rite of passage) – I seem to die a bit on the inside. As cliched as it is to say, this parenting business is not for the weak of heart. And weak of heart I am.

On that note, I give you this article, which I thought was written by me at first. What tipped me off wasn’t the name of the author (I thought that perhaps I had submitted under a nom de plume), but that I drink coffee, Coke Zero and icy cold water in the morning. And then it struck me that the voice seems to be somewhat younger than I. And I don’t have one of those fancy towels she speaks of. And she showers more frequently than I do. And she’s funnier. And a better writer. Look, I didn’t write it. I get that. But still. For just a moment, I thought, “Wait. Did I submit an article to Slate?!”

Watching those kids

This is long, but incredibly worth it in my opinion. Hanna Rosin does it again.

Happy April! 17 days until we close!


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