October 9, 2009

Baby Steps

As you may know, K started first grade this year.

I remember once when she was still quite small we had lunch with a friend of mine who had two pre-teen girls. I expressed worry that I would never be able to stop kissing K's feet, the tiny toes of which I thought looked like rose petals.

'It'll be so embarassing when she's a teenager!' I exclaimed. 'What if I can't ever stop??' My friend smiled with French urbanity (she's French) as she sipped her coffee and said, 'I wouldn't worry about it too much. Eet... changes as zey get older.'

And so it does. I no longer feel any uncontrollable desire to kiss the bottoms of my 6-year-old's feet or refer to them as 'petal toes,' although other parts of her are less secure from physical expressions of maternal adoration. But I'm still awfully proud of my grown up girl and the way she's adjusting to school life.

There's a little notebook the teacher uses to communicate with parents and you have to check it every day. Typically there's some request for the next day, such as: 'Please create a such-and-such out of a match box and send your child to school with 10 pressed Autumn leaves by tomorrow.'

What am I, McGiver??

Today there's a Fall Festival at school which parents are invited to attend. This morning we told K how excited we were to see her in her first play.

K's response: 'Oh, please, I'm just holding up a dumb piece of paper the whole time. It's totally lame!'

Alrighty then. She's only 6 but she's already lived in two countries and vacationed in several others. I guess you can't expect her to get all excited about holding up a piece of paper in the school pageant.

I tried again: 'Well, I'm sure you'll be the best paper holder upper ever!'

K's response can't be captured in print because she just rolled her eyes at me.

Ah, yes, our lifetime journey of parental dorkiness begins. She will never believe I used to have an iota of coolness in me. . .

12 comments:

  1. My little guy is 8 and I still love kissing those soft cheeks. Guess that will change when he starts shaving. :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. My littlest guy just turned 9 ....and I am still obsessed with his feet. They are perfection. I no longer kiss them but I sometimes massage them. OK I will stop now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My soon to be 16year old air kisses me...it's sad. She also bends down to air kiss me which is also sad...but she will always be my baby! Have a wonderful weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm sure her paper holding skills are tremendous.

    ReplyDelete
  5. K is already cooler than me. :)

    I must have my hugs and kisses from all of them still. I even rocked my 7 1/2 'baby' in the rocking chair the other night. But, their feet have been too yucky for me for years. They are like sasquatches, all of them. My little baby sasquatches...

    ReplyDelete
  6. At least you are trying! That notebook sounds terrible. How many students are in her class? I have a hard enough time SIGNING 25 planners at the end of each day!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm all about getting the kisses. When Mr. M gets older and announces he has three hours left in which to build a ship inside a coke bottle using only tweezers and a magnifying glass, I'll hold him down and hold him hostage. And get my kisses for a year. Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Too funny... My kids already realize that I'm the world's most embarrassing mother!

    ReplyDelete
  9. As soon as the child pops out you automatically zero out on coolness.

    Sorry to be the one to tell you.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I like your McGiver comment. LOL!! This type of busy work gives homework a bad name!!!

    Your daughter is at a precious age. Enjoy!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love it!! Princess Nagger is in first grade this year, too - and it sounds like she and K are a lot alike - including the eye rolling response. I bet K was the best paper holder ever! ;)

    And amen to the requirement to be like MacGyver! So far at least the teacher has had the foresight to send those types of assignments home over the weekend... :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Parents aren't cool - no matter what - your coolness factor is gone forever!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails