Mama friends

Last week I wrote about the trauma of Ella's first ballet class.  I am working up the emotional fortitude to write about the second week.  I'm not sure whether there will be a third or fourth week.  But that's for another post.

Tonight, I'm thinking about how amazingly grateful I am for my fellow Mama friends.  I am lucky, so very lucky, to have many friends who are amazing mothers, and I learn so many things about parenting from all of them every single day.  After all the ballet angst of late, I desperately needed someone to help me decide what to do next.  Fortunately, after my book club gathering tonight, I walked out with a few of my dearest mama friends and within moments of standing together in the darkened suburban street, I had been regaled with multiple stories of other children having similar challenges with dance class, swim lessons, music class, and a soccer team.   It took only a minute for me to unload the basic details of my situation and only moments for my friends to respond with everything I needed - validation on the emotional challenge, personal anecdotes of similar situations with positive endings, and some really helpful practical advice.  I wanted to dance under the streetlight. "I am not alone in finding it hard to navigate a shy child's interaction with the world! We will get through this and Ella will not sit on the sidelines of life and cry for the rest of her life! I need to go home and Google 'Exposure Therapy'!" As I drove home, I felt lighter than I've felt in a week.

Thank you, Mama friends, near and far.  I am so grateful for you all.

Ella enjoys

This morning, Ella sat down at the dining room table and said "Dada, yesterday for breakfast I enjoyed cheerios, a napkin, raisins, and cream cheese.  I'd like that again today please."

There are so many things I love about these sentences.  First, her use of "enjoyed".  Second, her listing of a napkin as the second-most important component of breakfast.  And third, her excellent manners.  Watching her language develop over the past two years has been one of the most fun parts of parenthood.

Peppery Cake Salt

In the bath the other night, Ella was carefully measuring out small cupfuls of water and pouring them into a big boat.  As she measured and poured, she gave me the recipe for the dish she was cooking.  I grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled it down because it was the kind of recipe only a little kid can come up with.  In case you want to make Peppery Cake Salt, here's how you do it:

Ingredients:

Four and a half pinches of salt
One half baking sugar
Two pepper
A little more baking sugar
A few scoops of rice makes it really good

Bake 45 minutes at a really cold temperature but when it's done in the oven, it'll be a little warmer.