Scenes from the Circus

The girls and I were in the car yesterday, headed for Walmart, and Kathleen made it quite clear that none of our regular radio stations were up to par.

"It not good, Mama," she said, "Turn it off."

Then she launched into her own version of the song from "Super Why," a PBS program about reading, which she's watched a few times lately. She sang for a while about the Super Readers and how they saved the day.

When she'd finished up her medley, she paused before continuing, "Coming up next, Clifford, the Big Red Dog!"

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Kathleen's Saturday morning gymnastics class has been a big hit. It has helped her learn to jump (one of her favorite activities) and somersault and swing from any horizontal pole. A few nights ago, she was trying to somersault on the living room floor. However, she'd forgotten about how to walk her feet up to tip herself over, so she was mostly leaning over with her her head on the carpet, looking frustrated.

"Mama, help!" she cried, "My head not working!"

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The girls and I had run into the PX to fax some papers (since I'd forgotten to switch our homeowner's insurance, seeing as how we're no longer homeowners!). Because it was a quick trip, I just had Madeline on my hip and Kathleen held my hand. Our trip took a short detour to ride the miniature merry-go-round, which, to my delight, played the circus theme as it spun around. The spinning delighted Kathleen.

After that we headed back out to the car, only to discover that it was raining. Now, rain isn't a big deal here, really. It's nice and warm, so no worries. But it wasn't just raining; it was pouring. I thought about staying around the PX longer, but our nap schedule only allows for so many errands. We HAD to hit the commissary, since we were out of milk. So we decided to make a run for it.

"Let's run in the rain, Kathleen!" I said. And so we held hands and dashed into the parking lot. Kathleen kept yelling, "Run! Run!" And we were both giggling. And Madeline must have known how silly we looked, because she started laughing. And then the three of us were laughing -- really laughing! -- as we ran through the rain to the car. Anyone who saw of us must have thought we were a little crazy. And they'd be a little right.

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We've been potty training around here. We've made good progress, though we're not entirely accident free yet. Consequently, we talk a lot about "big girl panties." We talk about how they're so much better than diapers or pull-ups and how we keep them clean by using the potty. Kathleen loves her panties with "princesses" on them. After a quick hug in the morning, the first thing she does when I get her up is open her drawer to pull out her "big girl panties."

Kathleen was in the bedroom with me as I got dressed the other day.

"Oh, Mama!" she exclaimed, "You wearing big panties!"

If that's not motivation to keep running, I don't know what is.