1m2aSandbox

The other day Maddie and I were walking to school, Cora scootering on ahead. Maddie was holding my hand, pausing every once and a while to give me a brief, affectionate hug. As we neared the school Maddie grew quiet, clearly thinking about something.

“Hey, kiddo, what’cha thinking about?” I asked lightly.

Every Sunday Maddie brings her personal Bible to church; her second grade class is encouraged to do so, trying to build the kids up to actually use their Bibles and become comfortable with them. Yesterday when Maddie ran to grab hers before getting in the car, Cora said, “Oh! I want to bring mine today, too!” and ran off to pick hers up – her new-for-Christmas, very lovely but perhaps intimidating-to-a-five-year-old grown-up Bible. I wasn’t sure why, but was happy to go along with it.

I dropped Maddie off at her Sunday school room before walking Cora to hers, and when Cora walked through her door she made a beeline for the teacher, clutching her Bible to her chest. Wanting to find out what was up, I did what any respectable parent would do: I eavesdropped.

“Hey, teacher, do you want to know something really interesting?” Cora peered owlishly up at her instructor.

Her teacher, of course, nodded yes.

Bear with me as I give you the background:

Exhibit A: Tuesday afternoon Cora came home from school with a new library book. When Maddie saw the book she exclaimed, “Oh, I saw that book at the library! I REALLY want to read it! Can I please borrow it?”

Seeing Cora’s mutinous look, I hastily spoke up. “Maddie, this is a book Cora checked out and she will get to read it first. Please do not read the book or try to look at it until Cora’s had a chance to read the whole thing, ok?”

Maddie agreed.

Wednesday, as I’ve mentioned before, is officially Mommy Day: I teach Monday and Tuesdays after school through bedtime, so Wednesday is the first chance the girls get to come home from school and hang with Mommy for the rest of the day. We keep the schedule clear – no play dates, no appointments – so we can really relax and hang out together all afternoon.

A couple weeks ago Cora was having a hard time getting back into the school groove post-Christmas-break, and I knew she was desperately looking forward to Wednesday. How do I know? Because she told me so on Monday morning. While running errands that Monday, I came across a yummy cashmere sweater on clearance at the outlet mall, and bought it using a gift card Cora had given me for Christmas. (This is getting somewhere, I promise).