two more

Two more weeks until my sweet Rachel turns five.  FIVE!  It sounds so old to me.  School aged....no longer a preschooler (well, she'll be in preschool until June, but I just...GULP...registered her for kindergarten last week).  Unbelievable. 

When I turned five I told my mom, "I'm so glad I'm five because now I can understand things!"  I remember feeling so much more grown up at age five than age four.  Don't ask me why, but that's the way I see it now, too.  She's growing up so fast.  Asking thoughtful questions (well, sometimes).  Having an actual conversation with her daddy or me.  Playing nicely with her sister, helping me by entertaining her while I make dinner or fold laundry.  Last night we went out for a bit, just the two of us, and got ice cream.  We had an interesting conversation about her friends at school.  I'm enjoying teaching her to read (she wants to learn, but only has a short attention span when it comes to sounding out, so we do just a little at a time, but she gets so excited when she does it right!  I counted it a success today when I heard her trying to sound out a word on her DVD case from the library all by herself.). 

Today she had her first ballet class in a long, long time.  Ever since we saw the Nutcracker she's been begging me to take ballet lessons.  I've had trouble finding one that starts in the middle of the year, is on a day/time we can do, and that doesn't cost a fortune (it seems like the regular dance studios charge SO much, plus their classes begin in the fall and follow a school year calendar, so joining in March isn't really an option).  And thanks to my friend, Emily, I finally found one at a nearby community center (thank you, thank you, Emily!).  The class I originally signed her up for was a combo class--tap dancing AND ballet--but the teacher called earlier this week and said they had to cancel that one because there weren't enough students, so she's in just a ballet class instead--she was disappointed (we already bought the tap shoes and she'd been dancing in the basement with them), but still looking forward to it.  She was SO excited this morning to put her leotard on and finally go (she's been wearing her leotards around the house for weeks, "practicing!")  I was pretty worried about the whole thing.  Rachel's track record lately of her behavior hasn't been stellar (I've chosen not to write about most of those things because I don't really want to look back on this blog and remember the yucky discipline side of parenting her!), but she made me proud this morning.  She was quiet, serious, followed directions, and behaved just as I would've hoped.  I would like to say that it's because she's maturing as she nears five.  But since it was just this week that she demonstrated her less than stellar behavior at the doctor's office, I don't think I can say that.  I think more likely it was because it was a new place, with a new teacher and new little girls, and she was a bit timid.  Give her some time to get comfortable, and I'm almost positive she'll be my chatty, zesty Rachel.  (Unfortunately, with that zest often comes her misbehavior--she's a girl with a WIDE range of emotions, and she normally isn't afraid to show them.)  But I'm glad we found her the class and she loved it.  Next time I'll try to take some pictures.  I spent the whole time today trying to keep Rebecca from interrupting the class with her very loud babbling and didn't get to take any--I'm hoping that next week maybe my husband can keep her home or that we can all go, but he was gone this morning.

Anyway, those are some of the things I've been thinking about lately...mourning the impending loss of my four year old, but excited about my soon-to-be kindergartner (actually, I'm terrified about her starting school, but that's a topic for another day).