Panting

This week Amelia started back to preschool with "pink"tails in her hair and smile on her face. She's in Jenny Jones' 4yo class, and she sighs with pleasure every day at pickup time. Here is a picture of her classroom. Some friends from her T/Th 3yo class are in there, along with some new ones she's excited to play with. Playground time, circle time, center time and gym are all her favorites.

Yesterday after lunch, I walked into the kitchen after putting the boys down for naps. Amelia had been coloring a booklet from Sarah Ellie's Thomas the Train birthday party. She was panting heavily and said, "Thomas is blue and Percy is green and Harold is purple and Emily is green and I can't color this book fast enough!!!!!!! I think I need to take a breath and breathe!" I hope this is not the start of school-related stress, but rather just the excitement of a new pack of markers.

In the first picture, she's checking her work after putting on her $1 thrift shop dress (backwards), putting barrettes in (without brushing all her hair), and donning new princess shoes from her friend Missabella (Isabella). Isn't it great to be a self-sufficient 4yo getting yourself ready for the day?

Amelia has been talking about wanting a house with "family stairs" for quite some time. Last night, we finally got an explanation. "Family stairs" are ones inside the house where kids and adults can walk up, and there could be beds for the kids to sleep in up there. The other kind of stairs are the ones we have - just "attic stairs" that only the parents are allowed to walk up and bring stuff down, but kids are not allowed to walk up. We're glad to have the mystery solved as we've been wondering about these "family stairs" she has been mentioning for so long.