Mabel Molanphy

I should take a pho­to of my home right now, to note the irony of that title. 🙂 In Miss All­wyn’s class, Mabel is taught to keep her cub­by tidy, so that “guinea pigs” aren’t hid­ing in the messy areas. Kind of makes me laugh. Any­how, I got a pho­to emailed to me on Fri­day of last week … not­ing that Mabel got “First Place in Tidy­ing Up.” I did­n’t even ask details … I just imag­ined David’s but­tons pop­ping off across the room. That is *def­i­nite­ly* his area. 😉

Look at that proud face!

“Sev­en” is a HUGE num­ber to me. HUGE. It makes me feel like she is so old, and that my “lit­tle girl” is just gone … In talk­ing to a friend, I real­ized that two major events hap­pened when I was 7 that have stuck with me. 1. We moved from Tuck­er, GA to West Lafayette, IN … and two, I “stopped” suck­ing my thumb (pos­si­bly simul­ta­ne­ous­ly). “Stopped” mean­ing it was more like this: bandaids, and foul-tast­ing fla­vor paint­ed on my thumb. This may have also coin­cid­ed with the time my “blankie” disappeared…I guess that’s three main events. Wow. I won­der what Mabel’s mem­o­ries will be?? Hope­ful­ly this party …

Today was an epic par­ty (3 1/2 hours of play!). The kind that only chil­dren can plan and enjoy. There were bal­loons, stream­ers, dec­o­ra­tions to behold, but most impor­tant­ly: kids in-charge of their own play! Mabel even had her first art show!

I pur­chased face paint (the Hal­loween kind), and they dec­o­rate them­selves. They played legos, dol­lies, dress-up clothes, pre­tend­ed they were all kit­ty-cats, and so much more. Oh, yes, we unrolled large sheets of paper and they traced them­selves and drew them­selves in. Sev­er­al times I heard, “this is so much fun!” It was great to see the kids so utter­ly hap­py to just be able to play freely!

Mabel’s class pho­to and per­son­al photo

Mabel’s class­room 2016–17 with Miss All­wyn Fitzpatrick

Mabel (bot­tom-left); Grace, best friend (bot­tom row, 3rd from right)

Today you lost your third tooth, your right top front tooth. You were eat­ing break­fast, and asked me to help you pull it out. You were ner­vous, but brave, and very proud. Then we retreat­ed to your bed to read two chap­ters of Bet­sy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill (we fin­ished the whole book lat­er today). Then you woke up your dad­dy to show him your new smile. 🙂

We had a fun day with you. We took our fam­i­ly pho­tos with Chesea Duer­den, fol­lowed by a fun morn­ing at the Acad­e­my of Sci­ences. We love that place. Poor Claude had a bloody tail, and we did­n’t find out what had hap­pened … we assumed the snap­ping tur­tle got to it. See­ing the scu­ba divers is always a favorite, and then we saw your favorite plan­e­tar­i­um show (Habi­tat Earth); by my cal­cu­la­tion, that’s the fourth time you’ve seen it. Today, I took a nap dur­ing it. 😉 Dad­dy may or may not have stayed awake … I was­n’t awake to notice. 

Then, of course, we walked over and had a yum­my NY style hot dog, fol­lowed by the amaz­ing ice cream at Twirl and Dip (how have we not made this a greater part of our rou­tine)! After doing our “we’re get­ting ice cream” dance along the side­walk, we retreat­ed to our bikes to ride home. After a nice “qui­et read­ing time” (dur­ing which Dad­dy fell asleep read­ing you “Fan­cy Nan­cy,” and you col­ored) you got to take the emp­ty plas­tic bot­tles to the gas sta­tion and trade it in for your $2.00.

Your sev­enth birth­day is in six days. Wow. It’s a real­ly big num­ber to me. I’m so grate­ful that both Dad­dy and I have made so many sac­ri­fices so that I’ve been able to be with you and teach you so much. We are so grate­ful for your edu­ca­tion and your lov­ing teach­ers. I’m so grate­ful you made me a mama — thank you.

Love,

mama