Attached, but Separating!

Delores has faded... enough at least to let us all attended class yesterday without feeling like bad people for exposing the rest of the kids.

Ha! As it turns out, everyone has been battling this little epidemic.

Elliot's Early Childhood & Family Education class is fantastic. Now in week 4, she still cries angrily when I leave her for the separation time, but according to the teacher she calms down quickly and really enjoys the other kids.

Her teacher attributed some of her comfort to the "transition item" that she's now attached to... I guess when I'm not there her lamby is the next best thing! Thanks Mimi!

Enough rambling. Here's a little anecdote about the sisters, and how grown up they are getting:

For five months, Elliot has waited with me outside Maya's classroom, quietly fascinated by the other little ones waiting to pick up their big brothers or sisters. For five months she has silently, somberly watched Miss Stephanie and Miss Leesa guide 20 exhausted preschoolers back from recess to their classroom for the end-of-day song.

Yesterday, after two hours of rowdy play in her own class, Elliot sat in my lap, munching on cheerios and waiting for Maya's class to finish their play time.

But yesterday, when she spotted Maya's pink snowsuit, Elliot leaped to her feet with the enthusiasm of Nancy Pelosi during President Obama's address last night. Performing her signature tap dance (Elliot's not Nancy's), she screamed "Maya, Maya, Maya" at the top of her tiny voice. Her hands waved, her little bum wiggled, and her new shoes stomped their excitement.

Maya turned, grinned, and reached across the heard of cats that were her fellow students to grasp Elliot's outstretched hand for a second. Then she looked over at her best friend (for the last two weeks) and said with pride, "That's my little sister."

"She's cute!" her three-year-old friend said. "Can she walk?" (She asked this while Elliot was still doing her Ginger Rogers imitation!)

"Oh yes," Maya said importantly, "She's a Toddler."

So there they were, my two little girls, with relationships all their own: Elliot and Maya, Maya and her friend. It was a fleeting glimpse of the independent people they'll become. Too sweet!