Pajama Day!

So, today is a HUGELY exciting day for Madeleine, because at preschool, it's PAJAMA DAY!

She has been longing for this day with delicious anticipation ever since I told her about it a few days ago.  At first, she seemed to believe that Julia would be joining her, either because Julia attended the preschool puppet show a few days ago - or - because Madeleine never gets to be the one to do special things all by herself so she simply can't conceive of a special event in which Julia is not present. 

ME: Madeleine, do you know that when you go to school on Thursday, you get to wear your pajamas?  It's going to be pajama day!
MADELEINE: Oooooh!  Pajama day!  And me and Julia will wear our PAJAMAS!
ME: Well, Julia won't wear her pajamas, because it's not pajama day at her school.
MADELEINE: So Julia is going to come with me to pajama day at MY school?
ME: No, Julia has to go to kindergarten.  But you get to go to school in your pajamas, and bring a flashlight and play in the dark, and you get to eat pancakes for snack!
MADELEINE: Ooooh!  I love pancakes!  And me and Julia are going to eat pancakes and wear our pajamas at my school?

So, yeah.  She wasn't quite getting the hang of the fact that Julia would not be taking part in preschool pajama day.

The excitement over pajama day grew even greater once we went over to CVS to buy Madeleine a flashlight.  Because the kids have worn out the batteries by playing with all our our household flashlights, the flashlights have been banned from kiddie hands.  I figured the best option was to buy Madeleine her very own, kiddie-sized light to bring to school so that if the batteries get burnt out at the end of the day, it's no big deal.  I cannot even tell you how delighted Madeleine was over her flashlight.  As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I also bought her new markers and a coloring book at the CVS, but it was the flashlight that truly captured her heart.  She even wanted to hold it in her carseat as we drove home from the store. 

I don't blame her.  Does anything in life get better than this?:

Madeleine did eventually seem to understand that her sister would not be accompanying her to pajama day, although she still couldn't quite wrap her head around the concept that this event was a special one just for her alone.  As she hopped up and down, bubbling with enthusiasm telling Daddy about the impending pj day, she once again stopped to wonder who would be joining her.

MADELEINE: Daddy!  Tomorrow is PAJAMA DAY at my SCHOOL!
ETHAN: Pajama day, huh?  That's pretty cool.
MADELEINE: (hopping drunkenly with boundless vigor) Yeah!  Mom?  Are...are...are...are...are YOU and DADDY and my FLASHLIGHT going to come to pajama day with me TOO?

Just the flashlight, honey. 

As I put Madeleine to bed last night, she seemed too eager to bear the overnight wait.

MADELEINE: Mom?  When's it gonna be TOMORROW?
ME: When you wake up in the morning.  Then you get to go to pajama day!
MADELEINE: But why is tomorrow when I wake UP in the morning?
ME: Because.  That's when it will be pajama day.
MADELEINE: But WHEEEENNNN is it gonna be TOMORROOOOW?

She certainly did not forget about the excitement overnight, either.  As soon as she woke up this morning, she came plodding downstairs with a new pair of pajamas in hand, ready to be changed into her school pj ensemble. 

ME: Madeleine, are you so excited that it's pajama day?
MADELEINE: Yeah!  Because...now it's TOMORROW!

And happily, pajama day did not disappoint, even though Madeleine and her flashlight had to leave Julia, Daddy, and I behind.  As soon as Madeleine discovered there were tents to play in, she could hardly be bothered to let me hug her good-bye:

Now, just to make the day EVEN MORE exciting, after school, Madeleine got to go to her ballet class, and today was Parent Peek Day, so we mommies got to watch the class for the first time:

I even got some of the class on video, so you can see the chaos of a bunch of 3-year-olds trying to be graceful:






And as you can see in the final video, Madeleine doesn't *quite* have her big sister's strict and fearful adherence to rules.  Instead, Madeleine adds a few bursts of interpretive dance elements to her curtsy:




So, between my little gymnast Julia and my ballerina Madeleine, I think we can expect some world-famous dance artists sometime down the line, wouldn't you say??