Role Reversal and Smiley Days

It's a Monday morning. Laurence is woken up by a little girl tugging at his shorts (aka pyjamas) and making moves to push him over the side of the bed (a playful smile on her face). He opens his eye to attempt a focus on what it is causing such a commotion. Irini smiles back. She jumps off the bed, takes hold of one of his fingers, and pulls him along until he is upright and sitting, squinting with the day's light, hair disheveled, eyes trying desperately to focus on the world around him before having to take the first step.

Her little voice is clear: "You go school?". "Nai agapoula" (yes, little love) he responds and finally takes a step toward the beginning of the new day at work. Along the way, Irini helps with the deodorant, puts the toothpaste on the brush, watches and smiles, chats a bit. She brings out his socks to make sure he has a fresh new pair before heading down the hallway. She announces to Ida that "daddy go school" as Laurence and Idah share their morning greetings. Similar announcements are made to Natalia as she holds Amalia. Laurence clumsily shuffles from place to play, saying hellos and giving kisses to the appropriate people. He takes his shower, gets ready, lifts his arm to have Irini place the deo, and dresses for school. Thankfully his 'professional attire' is a simple t-shirt and pair of shorts and the only requirements from the fashion police is that they don't have the same color.

He lumbers down the hallway and stops to put on his shoes, given to him, of course, by Irini. She opens the door and locks it in place, gets his backpack, walks outside and around the corner to summon the elevator. Now fully awake, Laurence happily (and proudly) follows his daughter around the corner and into the hallway. Idah knows to follow to, to make sure Irini isn't stranded outside the apartment on her return. Irini presses the button for the elevator and they wait a few moments until the characteristic "ding" announces its arrival. Laurence steps in and Irini, anticipating the departure, says "kiss". Laurence leans down and she stands on her tippy toes and the kiss is shared briefly and generally with a smile. Laurence backs up into the elevator. Irini waits until the doors shut, waving all the way.

Laurence, now in the silence of the elevator as it descends six floors to the bottom, wonders how it is that his daughter is making sure that he's taken care of as he goes to school. Shouldn't it be the other way around? His smile accompanies him on his walk to school. Her smile lingers in his mind all day.

Growin' Up and Finding New Stuff

Amalia has been sneaking up on us as Irini has been more active and vocal. It means that our time with "number 2" is not spent staring and sharing smiles and raspberries as much as when Irini was young(er). But none-the-less Amalia is growing and growing. At her last doctor's appointment - 4 months already! - she weighed in at 6.41 kilos and was 62 cm long/tall. Her little lungs are also letting us know, in no uncertain terms, that they are likewise growing in size and capacity. But more than anything her growth is manifested in her new-found ability to focus on objects, both moving and stationary, to communicate (albeit in grunts and "wheeee" sounds), to sit up more steadily, to roll from side to side and her realization that she can reach for things a bit beyond her immediate reach. It is this realization that has lead to many moments of foot grabbing and toe tasting in our home... the kinds of stretches the adults can only dream of these days. Most often these new positions - somewhere between yoga and pilates - are accompanied by broad smiles.

Amalia grows daily. She becomes more beautiful. She has all of us enamored. She is steadily becoming her own self, filled with positive energy and happiness. Irini, for one, loves the fact that her little sister is starting to respond to her in such direct ways. They look at each other, play together (okay, more like Irini playing with Amalia), take baths together and, as is standard in our family circles, Amalia is the content recipient of a multitude of kisses... well deserved, all of them.

School for the First Time

Irini started pre-school on Thursday, September 2nd. After a run of visits to several pre-schools, Natalia decided that this was probably the best fit for our little one. It helped that this place had an outdoor trampoline that Irini loves to play on!

On the first day of school, Laurence was up before Irini was and he took a close look at his daughter, wished her well on the beginning of her journey to independence, pushed aside a mad rush to keep her home under the protection of the family, glanced at her once more, and slowly made his way out the door and off to work.

Later that morning Irini would wake up, take a shower with mommy, have breakfast and ask, time after time, if this was the day to go to Buzzy Bee. Natalia would smile and say "yes" and deal as constructively with her daughter's energy and inability to be patient. Finally the moment came and Natalia, as her mother before her, took pictures of her daughter's first departure to school. The surroundings were new (as Natalia and her sister and brother left from their Bogotá house), but the routine was essentially the same. Put on her clothing. Fill the backpack with little things to make the day better. Walk outside, where Irini would reach the button and summon the elevator to the sixth floor. On the ground floor she looked both to the right and the left to make sure no cars were coming, and walked out and onto the car with mommy's help.

Once at Buzzy Bee it was slow at first - the Greek-Colombians having arrived early! - and Natalia was allowed to mosey around and take pictures of her daughter with the few people that were there. Irini immediately went to play with a puzzle and a doll ('Baby') which she had played with the day before when they had come for the final pre-enrollment visit. Putting it to bed and roaming around happily was cue for the pre-school's director to patiently announce that, "when you're ready you can feel free to go". Natalia stayed a little longer, and then finally backed out, stealing one last sight of her happy daughter in her new environment.

Within minutes Irini was starting her new class, in her new group of classmates. She is happy there, it seems, and despite some moments of crying when she is being dropped off (not that first day, but the subsequent ones have been a little harder to say goodbye to mommy) she is happily involved in everything the pre-school has to offer. The director says she has become very comfortable very quickly. Now, when Natalia arrives to pick her up she has the same response as when she arrives: She cries and says she doesn't want to go home. How wonderful to be so happy with every aspect of your life that you don't want it to end. Of course, within minutes, she is happily chatting with Natalia and showing all the dance moves she learned that day.

We hope that this is the beginning of an education that will fill her with a love for life and a life of love. We hope it gives her the tools to be what she wants to be, to find something she loves, and to deal positively with those around her. We hope it equips her with imagination and dreams. We hope so much for our little Irini. She just wants to go and play and dance.... and so it begins.