Cyan! I Am Glad to Meet You

Dear Henry, 
My lil dude so expressive and dare I say colorful?!  For a couple of years you have been quite fascinated with unusual color names. Chartreuse, Indigo, crimson and cyan, to name a few.  You settle on a solid love of all things cyan, quizzing people to answer to what they think your favorite color to be.  Your school has an ample supply of individuals and expressive appearances.  This is one of the many reasons we love it so much, growing up where differences were frowned on, or at least constantly questioned.  One of the trends at your school is stripes of hair colors or full headed green heads or purple dos.  This is the year you wanted to do yours.  We held off through the year and as summer hit we said let's do it.  You are pretty sensory sensitive and I worried the process would drive you nuts and we would abandon our efforts to a vibrant cyan mid lightening process and end up with a brassy orange.  We talked about this and you promised to hold it together long enough to get through so we proceeded through steps 1. cutting and step 2. bleaching.  

You were so excited about the initial results you delayed the coloring part, admitting that there had been a lot going on around your head and you needed a breather.  You made it through the first round by talking to yourself, asking lots of questions and giving a blow by blow of what you were feeling.  Nervous energy was never more cute. 

We also allowed Hazel to do a little stripe in her hair. Barely there, a pretty "little caramel stripe" she called it.  So, here we are a week later and you are ready for the dye.  We prep, get you outside and slather on this bright blue stuff.  

You handled it amazingly but we had to rinse it outside in the cold hose.  After much hooting and hollering you followed up rinsing off in a warm shower and we dried the finished product...a gorgeous poof of cyan cotton candy perched on your head.  

You feel you look very cool.  We think so, too.  You were more than amenable to pictures.  I will post them all here for future looksies.  

I posted on facebook and apologized to your grandparents whom all understand your personal drive to self expression but are a bit reserved for such a brightly screaming statement.  No worries, they will see how happy you are an melt.

I love you buddy.  This was fun doing this for you.

Love, Mama

Third then Fourth

Dear Hen, 

Your last day of 3rd grade. WHAT!!! This really did happen super fast. People say that, the kids grow up super fast.  You really do.  You're 9 now and grew 6 inches since last summer and now wear my tennis shoes.  This was a year where you matured a lot and gained many levels of self confidence.  You got through testing, which you take very seriously, with a pass and pass plus.  You felt really great about that.  We were really proud of how much work it was for you yet you still excelled.  It is hard for you to do writing projects without a constant sounding board.  You worked very hard on finding ways to do this in class.  Mommy and daddy and your teachers were very proud of you.  We love that you and Hazel will be together next year.  It is such an exciting time in our family to have you both in school learning and growing to become your best selves.  I love how as we put another version of you in our pile of memories a new one emerges with the vestiges of the last, 

funny, goofy, inquiring, struggling, trying new things and appreciating your friendships.

I really enjoyed your outdoor end of the year program.  You were full of anticipation and you drilled into me many times how much you wanted us there.  It was beautiful day and I wasn't the only wet cheeked parent there after you sang I Lava You.  

(Or Hazel likes to say, Balava).  It chokes me up every time!  You were excited when you finally caught my eye before you began singing.  I couldn't miss you.  You had a carefully planned outfit for the performance.  See picture below.

 "I have a dream

I hope it will come true

That you're here with me

And I am here with you

I wish that the earth, sea, and the sky up above

Will send me someone to lava"

My hope was answered.
I lava you, 
Mama

New Starts

Dear Peach, 

It is happening.  The day I thought would never get here, the day that I didn't want to get here, the day I couldn't wait to get here all rolled into one.  You are enrolled at TPS, with your big brother next year!!! He will be in 4th grade and you will be in kindergarten.  We went to your orientation after two false starts, due to me getting the date wrong and the other a power failure at the school and they had to move the date.  You could barely contain yourself with disappointment at the cancellation conversely a week later with elation to attend the orientation. You picked a special dress, you did your hair and you worked to get out of the house early.  We entered the building and our fearless, intelligent and kind principal and you shrieked at each other with joy and gave big hugs, with all standers-by welcoming that, "Hazel is finally going to be here!!"  The teachers and students already know you by name, of course. Your goal for the orientation was to make some friends and two 1st grade guides stuck to you like glue...but your brother felt he wanted to show you around and guided you to the art and music room through the cafeteria and where you could go to the bathroom if you had to go while at school.  You had a great 7 months where you attended a lovely short half day kindergarten, and you were so tired at the end of the day.  I hope your excitement and enthusiasm carry you through the long day of school, friends, play and learning.  I know this is all going to be an adjustment.  Our entire schedule will be different, and mommy's life is going to change.  I have already been doing more photos for people and volunteering at the school with the middle level (and I was so impressed and need to be a part of that).  I am sad that my official stay at home mom days are over. I am guessing the first year your breaks from class, when the two of you are all mine, all day, are going to be little glistening jewels among the growing pains.  

   After your orientation we celebrated via a Chocolate Moose tradition, a dipped torch cone with eyeballs. It is official. I have two kids in school.  A boy. A girl.  They are super different from each other.  Super funny.  Super smart.  You are going to add a lot to the school my little sweetie, and they are going to add a lot to you. For that I am grateful. I will think of these days of just the two of us with lots of time to snuggle, over and over.  I asked you last night if you will still hold my hand after you start school. Sitting on my lab snuggled close, you pulled back and earnestly looked into my eyes. In your gentle caring manner you said, "Mama, I am getting bigger and I may not hold your hand anymore but I will still probably love you." (Two weeks before Henry entered Kindergarten he promised he would always hold my hand...it wasn't a two days into his first week and the promised changed.)  These changes are coming...and the girl who told me a month ago that she was worried that we wouldn't have enough cuddle time in the day so we would likely have to cuddle me as soon as she got home is going to shed and discard into my piles of Hazel's in all over her appearances.  Your constants are beautiful.  Caring, kind, loving, snugly, hilarious, a fantastical imagination and a gift of the gab, but as you said, you are growing up.  The spaces where I fit will fill in with other wonderful things.
Love, Mama 

   

6/8/1992 | 6/8/2018 😍✌

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