We all started school this week. Mary Clare and I began on Monday and Margaret Rose and Baba started Thursday. Margaret Rose wore her monogrammed back to school dress again this year. It is just so cute I couldn't resist. She did not think my suggestion that she wear it on the first day of school every year until she graduates (hey- it could just turn into a shirt) was too funny. Margaret Rose is all about the pretty. We are still reserving judgement on her new school. The back to school events have been poorly organized and a general waste of time. And apparently "We are vegetarians. Margaret Rose may not eat meat." needs further explanation to the new teacher as MR's lunch tray had chicken nuggets on Thursday and a pork sandwich on Friday. Still she seems happy enough but that is just MR's nature. We are still worried that she does not have the academic and experiential background to be successful in 1st grade. We have a conference scheduled for the 3rd week of school to make a decision about the rest of the year.
Mary Clare is going to PreK with me this year. I fully expected to have her back at daycare by the end of the week but she announced on Wednesday, "I do not go to daycare anymore. I go to PreK and IT IS FUN!!!!" I was concerned she would be afraid of one of her teachers who is a loving woman but very LOUD. I forgot that for better or worse MC just cannot be intimidated. She loves the woman that I was so worried about and she doesn't even mind the hour drive there and back. Of course I just pick her up out of her bed and put her in the car with her Fifi pillow and blanket. She puts on her uniform and eats her macaroni cheese at school and then gets her signature hairdo- the 4 ponytails. Thanks to big sister for telling me "This is how we do it in my China." and demonstrating the ponytail things that her little sister requested because, of course, she is 4.
The girls are growing up so fast! I've been watching video trying to get MR's adoption video together and am amazed at how little they were last year at this time - just babies really. On Monday our Mary Clare said her name was "Mary Cware" and she "woved me". By Wednesday she was Mary Clare and loved me with her funny overly enunciated Ls. At this rate she'll be driving by Christmas and Margaret Rose will be in college.
At my school the children accumulate cards for good behavior that they are allowed to spend at a school store. On Friday Mary Clare came home with a pair of blue (her favorite color!)maracas. She was very excited and we had a fun evening having a music parade with piano, tamborine, maraca and bells. Margaret Rose really liked the maracas and Mary Clare told her that she would go to school next week and be good again so that she could bring MR home a pair of purple maracas. MR latched hold to this idea and started giving MC pointers on being good. As we left for school on Monday, MR followed us out the door saying, " Don't talk Mary Clare. Use good manners Mary Clare. Don't bite your friends Mary Clare, etc." Poor Mary Clare looked overwhelmed with the task ahead but promised to do her best. On Wednesday the purple maracas were in her book bag and she couldn't wait to get home and give them to her sister. Her teachers couldn't believe that she'd chosen something for her sister and not for herself. They told me they tried to talk her out of the maracas because they knew she already had some but she insisted she had to have them for Margaret Rose. There was as much joy in the giving of those purple plastic maracas as there was in the receiving. We are blessed to have 2 girls who love each other so much!
.JPG)
