My little girl has grown up a lot this summer. She hasn't so much grown bigger, as she's grown older, more like an elementary school child, and not the preschooler she used to be. When I catch sight of her out of the corner of my eye these days she seems longer-legged, more solid, her face is older, somehow--I can't quite explain it. [more]

We love traditional sayings and folklore expressions at our house. Sayings are easy for L.--and for children in general--to grasp. They are comforting, short, pack a lot of meaning into a few words, and are easily remembered. We have a saying for almost everything around here. Things like:

A place for everything, and everything in its place.
Two heads are better than one
Where there's life, there's hope
If at first you don't succeed...try, try again

And this one we've been using quite a lot lately:

If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb. [more]

Having a new five-year-old means lots of things: worrying about kindergarten, monitoring early-learning skills, watching your preschooler bloom into a elementary-school kid right before your eyes, and slowly but surely loosening your grip on those early childhood years and getting used to a new "normal"--new relationships with your child, new challenges, new triumphs. But it also means that it's time for that dreaded five-year checkup. [more]

I know it's only the middle of November, but we're already beginning to think about the fact that T. will be starting kindergarten next year. We're thinking about where she should go, and yes, we have a creeping wondering about whether she should go. We're not planning on keeping her back another year. She'll turn five this January, and by the time she starts kindergarten she'll have at least six or seven months of being five under her belt. We honestly never thought twice about sending her to school next year. [more]