Lemony Webbles

What are those Baker girls up to these days?

Maya- Nervous about starting first grade at Montessori school in a month. Has become a habitually good big sister to Teresa, watching out for her and being a little mother to her (with the usual lapses in to sibling fighting, of course). Was chosen to be in a pre-pre-team gymnastics class called Hotshots! (it just needs an exclamation point, doesn't it?) and loves every minute of it. The girl can do the splits! Geez, I never have and surely never will do the splits in my life. I love seeing my girls surpassing me. Makes me feel like I'm doing my job right.

Georgia- Missing school (when asked, she says she misses having something to do and misses learning there) and looking forward to third grade. Read the first 2 Harry Potter books in two weeks, motivated by the promise of seeing the corresponding movies upon completion. We cut her off after that because it was starting to get a little too violent for her to be reading for fun. If she needed to know about some actual violence in the world for justice or safety purposes that would be one thing, but dementors and things like that are not something she really needs to watch out for. Also really impressing me with her gymnastics skills: handstands and splits and all and leading us all in gymnastics stretches when she can get us to cooperate.

Teresa- Always the first one to get all the way into the water at the pool, getting more and more outgoing with kids she meets there, and she wears these cute blue sunglasses there that make her look super cool. The last few mornings the first thing out of her mouth was that she needed to practise her play. This consists of multiple costume changes, the accumulation of props, and the making up of little songs, but no plot or lines to be said. Sounds like fun when I describe it here, but I'm rarely ready to get into the spirit of it in the first moments after I wake up. Big surprise there. She also likes to use the biggest words she knows and if she doesn't have one to fit what she wants to say, she just makes one up. It adds poetry to the day.

Bahiyyih- Out of sorts technologically since our big computer (with all the pictures on it) has been broken for like a month now. Out of sorts socially because my book club is pretty much over, the two friends I've made this summer are moving away in the next couple weeks, and (as Husayn pointed out recently) it can be really lonely being a parent. My strategy for dealing with this: look for and expect good things to happen and people to meet. I'm on it. Also: things to look forward to- my cousin Lucy visiting the states next month, 10th wedding anniversary coming up this fall, yeah Billy!