Today Ava had her first day at “Morning Garden” – the waldorf-based pre-school. She marched right over to the kids, joined in (everyone was playing outside) and barely glanced in my direction. I asked for a hug and a kiss, as well as one for Carter and that was it. She gave me an exuberant wave when I got to my car in the parking lot, and Carter and I headed home where he fell asleep. I cannot express my sheer joy in this development. Obviously it is great for her, making friends, learning new things, etc, but I am so happy to get 3 hours on 2 days of the week to play at home with Carter. Not to mention that he is still young enough that cleaning the house can still be turned into “playing” – though I got Ava to swiffer tonight—she did really well until she thought the walls needed dusting. So, Carter and I cleaned, finally moving furniture to dust under it, something that makes me ridiculously satisfied and clear-headed. He and I stopped often to send a ball through a little ball-ramp thingamajig, but we got the vast majority of the house clean. Though I refuse to clean the sliding glass door. There is no point. Fingerprints and dog-nose prints are there to stay, until the kids stop peering through it with hands splayed and noses smushed and mouths breathing steam for drawing. It looks terrible, but it would kill me to clean it to watch a greasy palm go after it 2 seconds later.

Today on the way to school, Ava asked an open-ended question about dinosaurs. I do not recall what it was, but something along the lines of “what is a dinosaur?” So, I tried to explain, and she kept asking me to tell her more. Now, I know a decent amount about dinosaurs, but there is a lot that has happened in paleontology since I was 10. So, I suggested that we go to the library after school to find some books on said reptiles. We got three, and she is fascinated. Honestly, so am I. I never, ever thought I would be reading a book about dinosaurs and saying, “huh! I never knew that…” She is piecing together the plant eaters vs. the meat eaters, and is sort of getting the whole food chain concept, albeit with a little wrinkling of her nose.

Carter is walking around vocalizing in Carterese, but with such vehemence, it is not hard to figure out what he is saying. When he is really enthusiastic about something, he opens his mouth a bit, juts his lower jaw out a bit, and says eeeuoooouuurrrraaaahhhh! Ehhhhhh! Uh! And his eyes widen even wider and he points at whatever has his attention. And then, if you answer him, he calms down a bit, lowers his voice and ‘talks’ while nodding his head at you, having a complete conversation, with such sincerity in his eyes, it is just adorable. And then the car seat is a complete opportunity to have a running monologue on the 500,000,000 trees that we pass on the way to town. But often all he wants to do is see how many ways there are to blow bubbles/spit/do raspberries/yell. And of course, Ava is more than happy to encourage him.

The circus is coming to town. How about that? We are actually going to the circus. (insert joke about how life is a circus here…).