5.5

C (this is her "picture smile")

Happy Half Birthday Ladies

A bit random because I am behind by (ouch) two months

As your preschool director told me (with a grin) at pick up the day your class held wrestling matches, "What they lack in girth they make up for in determination."

• C, you are 42 inches and about 36/37 lbs.  (this was at 5.5, you have both actually grown in last 3 months).
• D you are 41.5 inches and about 35 lbs. 
• You (especially you C) are a little fascinated by money.  You want to know who pays whom and for what.  You will always ask "Is that his (or her) job?"  "Who pays him/her to do that?"  "Which job pays more.."  If it is a two mom family you are obsessed with knowing "which Mom works more." This can be a bit uncomfortable at times,  but I would like to think that you are just trying to figure out how the world works.  We were recently listening to something on NPR and you asked me what a beauty pageant was...I explained it (in not very flattering ways) and you asked what the prize was...I said $.  Then I asked you if you would want to do something like that... your answer? "Well, I'd like to get the money.  But, I wouldn't want to have to do all that stuff."
• You scar easily (especially you C) and I feel like it is me against your skin (and the sun).  I stare at the little scar underneath your lip C and I feel guilty every time I see it.  I remember when you fell between our bed and the bedside table and cut yourself.  I had no idea it would scar and I feel terrible I didn't take you to get stitches for it.  
• You are both a bit socially young.  D especially.  C, you are definitely into what bigger kids are doing, but you are both equally happy playing with younger kids.  D you could hang with Lila all day long and play at her level.  I love that you are not trying to grow up too soon, but I worry that this will get harder for you as you get older and kids get meaner.
• Along the same lines, you are still complete scaredy cats when it comes to shows.  You are not that into videos and movies anyway, which is good because we are running out of Berenstein Bears and Martha Speaks to watch.  I don't have any interest in showing you princess movies (I think they would scare you anyway) and you don't have much interest in a lot of other options offered you (you yelled for me to turn off Dumbo and Annie and you barely made it through Finding Nemo).  The exception--Charlotte's Web.  You laugh out loud every time the horse falls over.  
• You are both, 95% of the time, the world's best big sisters.  I probably could not say this too many times.  You have a slew of nicknames for her too--Li, Ho Ho, Go Go, Goags, Geej.  Maybe my favorite is how C will say "Here girl" to L when they are playing together, as if Li were her favorite dog.  
• You (C especially) look more like me every day. 
• You are so much fun to sing with in the car.  Dynamite, Firework, Life is a Highway, Celia Says, Mermaid Molly, Swimming in the Pool, Purple People Eater, Ready to Run, Carolina on My Mind, Life is a Highway, Run for the Roses.  We drive and sing and I can see a future where A) you will cringe if I try to sing with you, but B) with the right soundtrack we just might survive your teenage years intact.
• I have no idea where you stand "academically" right now and I can honestly say that I don't really care.  I mean I absolutely care in the big picture, but not right now in the small picture.  All the feedback we get on you from the people who probably know more than we do is solid.  Life is (hopefully) long and childhood is most definitely not, so for now I am not going to spend any time documenting your current 'academic' stats.
• I forget sometimes that when you are five things start to get hard.  I am so quick to forget that much of your life is new, unknown, and beyond your control.  I remember one day we were picking out clothes for school and C you got really upset and said "If I wear this and they sing the color song this morning I will only be able to stand up once!"  It was a very real issue for you that day, and I need to be more sensitive to what it is like to be 5.5.  
• You know about the birds and the bees.  Seriously. Your preschool believes that if you explain the basics at a young age in an objective, nurturing, safe environment kids will not be nearly as traumatized by the information (unlike me, who DISTINCTLY remembers the day my friend Anna told me what "making love" meant.  I was in first grade, it was in the bathroom at St. Theresa's, and I am still a little scarred by the experience).  They have been doing it for 14 years and said many parents come back to thank them about the honest and open line of communication it created.  They talk about the differences between boys and girls for the first year, get closer to the facts of life the second year, and in the pre-K go straight for the jugular.  We were probably in desperate need of such a school because our kids walked into that week of school still calling everything south of the border 'bum.'  After the first day I asked D, "What did you learn today?" Answer: "The difference between boys and girls." "And?" "It's mostly about their bums."  So after learning the cold hard truth Andrew got a few questions from C that make me laugh so hard I cry (and no, I can't put them in writing), and then neither of you have mentioned anything since.  (I share this information as much for posterity as I am giving someone the opportunity to rub my face in my own smugness if I announce I'm going to be a grandmother at 49).   
• When you are not exhausting me, I am staring at you and trying to commit every piece of you to memory.  You are on the cusp of leaving early childhood and we both know it.  I miss the little yous already.  And I love the bigger and more complex little yous intensely.

My Girl D