Class picture

A bit better picture of the graduation class. Pictured:
Ms. Sarah and Ms. Rosemary
Cormac, Madeleine, Ben, Kailer
Linda (Madeleine's good friend), Zachary, Ben, Aidan

Waterdog and the Graduate

Madeleine and Josephine's grandfather has new nicknames for them. He calls Madeleine 'Princess' and Josephine 'Waterdog' - a nickname that she is living up to. On Saturday, Josephine tagged along to the park where Madeleine was helping a friend celebrate her birthday. All of the kids walked down to a stream and were anxious to put their feet in the water. I found a nice, flat rock for Josie to sit on where she could dangle her feet in a shallow pool. I looked up for a few seconds to help kids cross the creek and looked down to find that Josie had scooted down and was now sitting in the pool of water. Waterdog she is. Madeleine is also in line for unusual nicknames though as she calls this grandfather 'Cow Papa' to distinguish him from her other grandfather, 'Golfing Papa.'

On Sunday, we attended a 'graduation' celebration with other preschool families. The actual ceremony was meant to be short, following a puppet show that we all attended. The ceremony was brief and low-key, but still ended up overwhelming Madeleine. She was fine for the group photo and then while Ms. Rosemary talked to the kids. The plan was for the kids to line up in front of the parents singing 'Zippety Do Da' and then receive their diplomas from Ms. Rosemary. Madeleine though was overwhelmed by the press phalanx facing her as the kids approached - she started crying. As an alphabetically-blessed child though, she received her diploma first and then ran 'off-stage' and found me. Madeleine was very upset, so I took her over to watch the carousel and calm down. After a few minutes, her friend Christopher and his family came over and asked if we would ride the carousel with them - all was better after that. Later, Madeleine explained that she'd been looking forward to the graduation, but didn't realize that there would be so many people looking at her.

We finished out the weekend at the pool. Madeleine got to swim with some new friends, as well as her friend Ben B. from preschool. Waterdog got in some time in the baby pool - she's figured out how to push off with her feet to propel her floatie across the pool - before crashing for a nap. Everyone was in bed early - Josephine at 7, Madeleine at 8:45, and the rest of us at 9.

Bathing Beauties

Madeleine and Josephine enjoyed another swim at the neighborhood pool this Saturday. It was a great, hot day for the pool and both girls were anxious to dive, or at any rate jump, in. Madeleine acquired a pair of orange flippers at a yard sale that morning and worked on using them in both the children's section and in the deeper area. She's still getting used to the water again after the winter - she loves it, but isn't quite back to where she was last summer in terms of putting her head under and trying to swim independently. She did however see a very young girl, probably about 3, jump off the diving board and dog paddle to the ladder. Michael explained very clearly what Madeleine would need to do to get diving board privileges and she started right away working on these skills.

Josephine had a great time at the pool, too. Previously, she's enjoyed the pool, but has been just as interested in rattling that chain-link fence around the baby pool and picking up stray flip-flops as in actually getting wet. Her attitude toward the pool changed dramatically on Saturday though and she had to be physically restrained from jumping into the 'big pool.' Perhaps from some combination of watching Madeleine play in the water and the heat, but Josephine is hooked. She loved 'swimming' on her tummy as I walked her around the baby pool, floating on her back when I held her hands, and lounging in a floatie as her sister pushed her around. We'll have to keep a tight grip on her this summer.

Last night, Madeleine asked me to read her a chapter from Little House in the Big Woods. We tried reading this together several months ago, but were challenged as the first chapter seemed to describe how to skin, cook, or cure just about any animal that happened to live in the big woods. Madeleine had been looking through it for pictures, so I skipped right to the chapter describing a dance at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Madeleine seemed to enjoy it - there are great descriptions of the clothes, dancing, and maple sugar treats. One part describes how Laura talks to another little girl also named Laura who says that HER baby is prettier than baby Carrie. I asked Madeleine what she'd do if another girl said her baby was prettier than Josephine. I expected Madeleine to defend Josephine, which she did but not at all in the way that I expected. Madeleine said that she'd tell the other girl that "They're both prettier!" which while it doesn't entirely make sense, demonstrates Madeleine's sense of fair play and equality.