Bicycles, Butterflies and Books....





Dana became the last existing six year old in the state of Wisconsin to give up training wheels on her bicycle this weekend. What she lost in haste, she made up for in finesse. Doug took off the training wheels....and 15 minutes later, she was completely riding around the block all on her own. No hesitation, no falls, no nothing. I guess she knew when she was ready!




And of course, we did the annual trek to the local botanical gardens to see the butterfly exhibit. I'm sure every city has one of these, but it never ceases to amaze. If you look closely, you will see butterflies in the background of these two pictures and see our children trying desperately to be still.....

Dana and I finished Caddie Woodlawn tonight. Oh, the sobbing I did at the end. This time, Dana didn't get it. She understood why I cried in "A Wrinkle in Time," what with the tesseracting and missing fathers and all.... She understood the tears with Charlotte's Web, spiders dying, etc. She got the tears in Little House on the Prairie, in fact she cried harder than I did when Jack the dog returned to the wagon after the dangerous river crossing.

But when the Woodlawn family was casting their "stay" or "go" votes about returning to England, the waterworks started and Dana looked at me like I was from another planet. And when Harriet (Mama Woodlawn) turned to her husband and said, (even though she'd been talking about returning east for the ENTIRE book:) "I can't leave Wisconsin - home is where you are, my darling husband" (or something like that) and then she burst into tears right in their parlor.....Oh my. I couldn't contain it. And of course, they stay. They stay in Wisconsin! Happy endings for Woodlawns (.....and Nelsons, perhaps?)

Someday, she'll understand. As for me, I am enjoying this part of parenthood so much that it has become one of the guilty pleasures of my life: Re-reading my favorite childhood books with my daughter. Honestly, I don't think it gets much better than this. Sobbing and all.

Do you think she's too young for Jane Eyre?

Posted: Sun - August 13, 2006 at 08:54 PM          

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