cat named pig

We’re trying something new around here (in addition to the podcast, and in addition to cat being what’s for dinner, according to Elliot). Today marks the launch of Big Girl Thursdays, a day when Elliot goes to school and Siena and I do all kinds of “big girl stuff.”

So far, it’s been a raging success. Siena’s BFF Avery joined us for the morning, and they played all kinds of cat-sister-going-on-vacation games, watched Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (thanks, Sara, and I mean that both with and without sarcasm) and ate a healthy lunch followed by a cupcake that did not contain one single natural ingredient. (Why does my husband save this stuff and bring it home for the kids? And why do they like it? And what is that frosting actually made out of? Shaving cream?)

Then Siena and I read several chapters of Little House on the Prairie, way more than we normally have time to read. After her nap, she and I are headed to Target to pick up some “big girl eyeshadow” for her and some big girl cleaning products for me. (Note to self for future Thursdays: try to provide some examples of big girl behavior not based on 1950’s sitcom gender roles. Like maybe next week we can be Big Girl Ninjas or something.)

All this makes for a rather boring update (check back next week, after we do the ninja thing) but the day has made me realize how much I enjoy spending time with Siena, with just Siena. She is a fantastic and loving big sister, but she definitely ups her crazy in order to compete for attention when her adorable little brother is around. When he’s not, she is much calmer. She also seems more grown-up, more like . . . a big girl, I guess.

Which makes me all the more happy that we will be spending some quality time together on Thursdays, just the two of us, from now until she starts kindergarten in September.

Because five minutes ago, she was an adorable two-year-old clutching a plastic bag containing her first fish. She is frozen like that, in my mind, slightly smaller than Elliot is now, with wispy baby-hair curling slightly behind her ears. Then I blinked, and somehow here we are doing actual homework assignments and buying shoes that would fit some adult women and shopping for eyeshadow.

And talking, nonstop, about everything in the world. About recycling, and Barack Obama, and friends and cats and playdates and how babies are born and things we want to do when we are older. You know, big girl stuff.