Express Thyself

We’re marching into the home stretch: Ruthie’s last week of kindergarten.

I remember driving through town within the first few weeks of school last fall and hearing this from the back seat:

“SSSS….. TUH… OPP… ST..OP…STOP! HEY THAT SIGN SAYS STOP!”

Bryan and I looked at each other in wide-eyed amazement that in just a few short weeks she’d learned to sound out a word. This entire year has been filled with wide-eyed amazement. One night at a friend’s house she picked up a globe and declared with confidence and animation, “MOM, THIS is the equator, and the closer you get to the equator the hotter it gets! Oh, and this is Antarctica.”

There have been similar outbursts at random moments, such as the time she declared “TRANSPORTATION IS HOW YOU GET FROM HERE TO THERE,” as we sat in traffic. And then there was the walk we took to the grocery store when she picked up trash along the way because, “WE HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF THE PLANET OR THE TREES WILL DIIIIIIEEEEEEE….”

She’s a quick learner, taking it all in and applying it in context. Though when I ask her daily what she learned in school, she will always tell me, “Nuthin’.” I find that to be the most frustrating thing of all, that I can’t be part of the sponge experience of soaking it all up.

I’m learning the best I can do is pull myself away from the multi-tasking to be in the moment with her, because that’s when she’s most open to expressing herself.