1m2aSandbox

Our city offers a really great program – free outdoor concerts every Monday during June - and most years we find at least once band we’re interested in seeing. This past Monday, we hit the city park to listen to a Beatles’ tribute band.

And boy, did we have a good time.

Dear Maddie:

Last week you asked me to take a picture of you on the day before your birthday, then take a picture on the morning of your birthday, print them both up, affix them to paper (your instructions were specific), and then turn it over to you. You want desperately to see if you notice a difference between your six-year-old picture and your seven-year-old picture.

Don’t bother looking, kiddo. I can see it well enough for both of us.

What has happened this past year? You’ve grown so much – and I’m not talking physically, though a friend of mine described you and a friend of yours, accurately, as “Great Dane puppies” just last week. And I’m not talking emotionally, though the difference between you at the end of kindergarten and you at the end of first grade is night and day.

No, what I’m talking about is how you’ve grown as a unique individual.

Every day this week Maddie presses me about her upcoming birthday in some fashion: asking if it’s too late to add to her wish list (yes), wanting to know if I’m getting stuff done for her party this weekend (of course), and wondering aloud whether or not she’ll look significantly different on the morning of her birthday.

‘Cause she’s aging and all.

This weekend Maddie and I were driving through some farm country when I spied a curious sight out the window.

“Look, Maddie!” I cried, and pointed to a group of horses – one of whom was wearing what I can only describe as an equine version of a 1950’s rain over-coat. You know the ones: A translucent plastic that folds up into your purse, but when the rain starts Voila! You’ve got a see-through raincoat that’s tailored like a lovely day dress. The horse didn’t seem to mind and was munching away on some hay while sporting a semi-translucent plastic coat, tailored over his whole body. It snapped at the neck, wrapped around his withers, and came partway down his tail, as if made for his measurements.