Star of the Week

When I picked Julia up from school yesterday, she came trotting towards me shouting, "Mom!  I made a CARD for you!  Don't loooook!"  And behind her back, she hid her "card," which was really a giant rolled up piece of poster board that she apparently thought I was too clueless and stupid to see.

"Don't look yet!  Don't look!" she continued to yell as she approached.  Then, once she had reached me, she whipped the poster board out from behind her back and shouted, "TA-DAAAA!"

Ahhhh.  The legendary piece of blank poster board, given to the successive "Star of the Week."  Julia has been waiting desperately for this moment ever since the first Star of the Week debuted her poster in the fall.  I can't even tell you how excited she was over the fact that it is FINALLY her turn to put together an "All About Me" poster to bring in next week.  In fact, she found it completely unacceptable that we couldn't lay the poster board right down on the sidewalk and get immediately to work.

JULIA: So, Mommy, can we START it now??!?
ME: Well, what are we gonna do, just start working on it in the snow here?
JULIA: Well, how about when we get home?
ME: When we get home, your baby-sitter is coming, and I have to go to work.
JULIA: Well, can I just do it MYSELF?
ME: No, honey, there are instructions I have to read through and I'm supposed to work on it with you.
JULIA: Well, can we just do it QUICKLY before you go to work?
ME: No, sweetie, we won't have time, and I don't want you to rush it.
JULIA: (annoyed and grumpy) Well, Mommy, WHY didn't you come pick me up EARLIER?

How.  Dare.  I.  What kind of mother refuses to pick her child up BEFORE the official dismissal time to go home and work on homework that's not due for an entire week?  I guess I was supposed to magically intuit that Julia would be hiding poster board behind her back when I arrived, and I should have shown up a half hour early so we could get right to work.

At any rate, as soon as my work day was through, Julia and I were ready to tackle that poster.  Here is the finished product:

Julia has truly been ACHING to assume the Star of the Week role.  It was clear to me, pretty quickly upon seeing the Star of the Week schedule, that the teacher was going in alphabetical order.  Growing up with the last name "Elf," I was always on the earlier end of the spectrum when school responsibilities were arranged alphabetically.  Unfortunately, now that we are the Rowe household, Julia does not reap the same benefit, so while all the kids with last names from A-P have had their shining moment, she has been waiting with barely contained excitement for her turn. 

We discussed the Star of the Week order just a few nights ago, when Julia told me of all the other kids who have already had a turn.

ME: Well, that's because it goes in alphabetical order.
JULIA: Well, I think...WAIT - Mom!!  I know!!  It goes in ATTENDANCE order!  Because - when we do attendance, Sydni is always right before my name, and now, Sydni is Star of the Week before ME!

Uh.  Yeah.  That's because attendance is also taken in alphabetical order. 

Speaking of Julia's friend Sydni (you know, the one with whom Julia always exchanges smiles?), Julia seems to see it as a stroke of luck that her buddy gets to be Star of the Week right before Julia herself.  As she put it to me yesterday,  "Mom?  Do you think this is, like, the most EXCITING day for me?  Like, in the morning I got to go to the DENTIST, then I got my Star of the Week poster board, AND, Sydni is Star of the Week this week, and, like, Sydni's my FRIEND!"

I so wish I could have the most exciting day for reasons as simple and innocent as that.

And I'm glad Julia still thinks the dentist is a treat.  So long as she gets to choose her own new toothbrush color and get a giant balloon at the end, I guess she can overlook all the poking and prodding at her gums and teeth.  Speaking of giant balloons, Madeleine was also given a dentist balloon, and has been joyfully playing with it all day today.  In fact, she even made up a new game to play with her balloon, called "Boom to Boom":



Anyone want to come over and play "Boom to Boom" with us?  It's really easy!  All you have to do is throw it at the ceiling, or throw it at a friend, or throw it on the roof of the Barbie dollhouse.  Nothing to it!