“A portrait of my children every week in 2016.”

Lillia: This was February vacation week, so you’ve been relaxing here at home. You’ve been pestering me ceaselessly to get your hair cut (it hasn’t been trimmed since August…), so your father finally made an appointment for you to go see his friend who owns a barber shop. The last time you had your hair cut short you weren’t thrilled with the results, so this time we took you to an actual barber who has more recent training and experience with the kind of cut you want. This picture doesn’t really do justice to the finished result, but it’s actually very cute. And, it’s finally out of your eyes!

Zane: This week you were also on vacation. At the beginning of the week I was home with a terrible cold, but you did eventually go and play at Meme’s house on Thursday and Friday. You and Meme made a very cute little book, complete with full-color illustrations, about the unlikely friendship between a chicken and a puffin. [You can read the whole thing here.] When you came home you wanted to make more books, so we’ve been working on them all weekend. You draw the pictures and then dictate the text to me. It’s been fun and I know we’ll love looking back at these when you’re older.

“A portrait of my children every week in 2016.”

Lillia: This week you auditioned for your school’s play. You frequently talk about wanting to be an actress, but sometimes you are reluctant to get involved in community theater. I think this is mostly due to the time commitment—you need a lot of time to relax! But, a play at school is the perfect opportunity. You learned on Friday that you were cast as Count Downe, an evil scientist of some kind. You were really pleased and said you enjoyed playing “bad guys” because they are usually more interesting characters. I can’t wait see you on-stage!

Zane: This week you are doing much better at drop-off, I think largely due to your own ingenuity. I noticed that this week when it was time for me to leave, you would wait in the cubby area, covering your eyes and counting. I asked you, gently, if this was an idea you had so that you wouldn’t have to physically see me leave. You said that it was. I am amazed at your coping skills, and I do think that you enjoy school most of the time, but it still makes me feel terrible to leave you like that. I know you’d rather be home. Being a working mom is tough—and, I know I’m not alone in my desire to be in two places at once.

“A portrait of my children every week in 2016.”

Lillia: This week you received your very first (and hopefully last?) DETENTION. Before we all panic, let me just say that it was 100% academic in nature and had nothing to do with behavior. You have been, and always will be, a child I just don’t have to worry about in that way. Now, I will say that I am not impressed with the policy in question—an automatic classroom detention if you have two late or missing papers for one class. Detentions should be a last resort, in my opinion, and I may have expressed some choice words when I looked at the form I was supposed to sign. You father discouraged me from commenting, but I might still say something, especially if this happens again. Of course, I’ve never been a big believer in “punishing” people and perhaps that is a flaw in my character. But, my direction comes from an authority much higher than myself: mercy triumphs over judgment.

Zane: This week you have been REALLY interested in numbers. You frequently ask me to add two numbers together: “Mom, what’s 7 plus 8?” or, “Mom, what’s 80 plus 6?” I’ve been collecting little quotes from you, too, because you do, in fact, say the darndest things. Here are a few number-related Zane quotes, just for fun: “The biggest number in the whole universe is…11!” or, my personal favorite, “Dad, why was 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 made 8 cry.” Even jokes gone awry are endearing when delivered by a four year-old.

“A portrait of my children every week in 2016.”

Lillia: This week you moved up to the next level in your hip hop class. You have been taking these classes since, well, I can barely remember it was so long ago—maybe first grade? In any case, you had been cruising along and were doing well, but due to the nature of how the classes are ranked you were in a high level class with much younger children and you felt a little embarrassed about it. All of your friends are in the slightly less technically advanced class that starts an hour later. So, we enrolled you in the later class, but your first session with the older kids didn’t go as smoothly as you had hoped. You were a little overwhelmed by the speed of everything—you knew the moves, but were used to a slower pace. I think you might be regretting your decision to move up, but you said you will give it two more weeks to see how it goes. [Update: Everything is going great three weeks in—Lil caught up quickly and is really enjoying the challenge.]

Zane: This week you have been really interested in imagination games! You are really enjoying pretending to be a mailman the most (hence the costume, above). You also frequently like to be a milkman. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but you really want to be a milkman. It was your turn to be VIP at school on Friday and so you decided that you wanted to show everyone your milkman costume and toy milk bottle set. As it turns out, your teachers actually let you give a presentation to your whole class (see picture here). You told them about what a milkman’s job used to be, and how over time the industry went into decline. You and your sister are such unique, interesting people—what a blessing it is to be your mother.