School and School Work

Today, after I picked up Madeleine from school, I expressed my happiness at reuniting with her.

ME: I missed you!
MADELEINE: I mis--uh....uh...
ME: What, you had too much fun at school so you didn't miss me?
MADELEINE: (cheerfully) I didn't!
ME: Well, at least you're honest!

Then, just to REALLY re-iterate how little she notices my absence during the school day, Madeleine continued on.

MADELEINE: Yeah.  Because Mama.  Every single time I say "I missed you too," I *didn't* really miss you!

Ahhh, I can feel the love.  In actuality, however, I am SO happy that she is not like me, the kid who cried for my mommy every day of preschool.  And kindergarten.  And part of 1st grade.


Meanwhile, Julia probably doesn't miss me either when she's at school, but it appears she does have Madeleine on her mind.  Today at Julia's parent-teacher conference, I got to look over a bunch of work she has done throughout the school year.  At the end of one of her non-fiction books was a "Meet the Author" page, which read:

"Julia Rowe was born on November 23, 2006.  She loves to swim, play the piano, sing, read, and write books.  She has a yonger sister named Madeleine.  She goes to Elimentry School.  She is in second grade.  Her sister is in preschool."

I am so absolutely touched that Julia felt the need to include some relevant information about Madeleine, who is IN NO WAY involved in the writing of this book, simply because Madeleine is such a big part of the author's life.  Even if Julia spends an awful lot of her time telling Madeleine to stop copying her.  Or following her.  Or talking to her.  Or doing anything that happens to be on Julia's nerves at any given moment.

The non-fiction book which contains this "about the author" page is Julia's animal report.  And what animal did Julia choose?  Not one I would have ever expected:

All About Beavers
Written and Illustrated by Julia Rowe


On one of the pages in this book, Julia got to choose a habit of beavers to elaborate upon in a step-by-step fashion.  Here's what Julia wrote about:

Different Kinds of things a mother beaver does to get ready to have babies

1: The beaver finds a mate
2. The mother beaver waits three and a half months to have babies.
3. It builds makes a speical nursary for her babies.
4. When the babies are born, the mother beaver likes to be alone.  The babies are called kits.

I like Julia's idea that once the beaver finds a mate, she somehow magically has babies come out of her body three and a half months later.  It reminds me of the time Julia asked me, "Wait, Mommy, how do you even GET a baby in your tummy?  Do you have to just wish really, really hard for a baby?"

I mean, I know that at some point in the not-so-distant future we're going to have to talk about the birds and the bees.  Or perhaps I should say the beaver and the beaver.  (Or, if we want to get really immaturely inappropriate, the beavers and the cocks...)  But for now, I'll take her innocent idea of the power of positive thinking in creating offspring.

And speaking of the above topic, here's how Julia defined "mate" in her glossary at the back of her non-fiction book:

"Mate: A male and female beaver who are married."

I tell ya what, folks.  Next time I hear of a rollicking old beaver wedding happening in our neck of the woods, you're all invited!