Kalian's Growing Up

Today, we went to Kalian's co-op preschool for the annual fall clean-up day. I can't believe she's starting a toddler program already. Was't I just screaming, "It's a girl! It's a girl!"?

Chris is the main cog in the co-op wheel. He rode his bike over there earlier to get started, and then I brought the kids over. When I arrived, he, as co-op secretary, was taking "attendance." I asked him where my name was on the list. He said, "You're not a member. I am." Gulp.

I stayed outside in the play area watching the kids and getting to know some of the other parents who were watching kids while partners and other members were cleaning. At one point, a woman came screaming outside, "Noone's watching my daughter, and she's climbing up on those monkey bars all by herself." I quickly looked over, expecting to see one of the 15 month old babes. Instead, a 3 year old (?) girl had expertly brought over a small slide and had used it as a ladder to get onto the monkey bars. Instead of rushing over, I just thought, good for her. You go girl. Is it because I'm not a first time mom? I guess this co-op thing will take awhile to get going, though that was probably the last time I'd spend any substantial time over there. I'm going to try to schedule it, so I can pick Kalian up occasionally, but Chris will be doing all of the dropping off, working at the co-op one day/week, and certainly all of the outside duties.

Tonight, Liam had gone to bed early, and Chris and I were chatting in the kitchen. I opened up the fridge to put something away, and Kalian came in saying "Mo, mo, mo" which means "more" - I just assumed she wanted something to eat, but Chris said, "No, she wants you to go play with the puzzle with her." Boy, did that make me feel like an work-away-from-home parent. Sigh.

But I did teach her to string beads tonight. So there!