Monaloca

About a month ago Melina got really upset about the whole turning five thing. Thinking it was nerves about coming change, I asked simply, “Why are you upset?” Her response made me laugh: “Because all my friends are turning five and my birthday’s a really long ways away!”

Wow, five. Solo biking. Reading. Learning to swim. Kindergarten. Our biggest girl has shed most all her preschool-ness and is ready to take on the big-kid world. With a little hesitation, of course. And no small dose of Melina-esque imagination and flightiness. Our girl often gets locked in her very own, very happy head-space.

We haven’t been over-emphasizing kindergarten but, with Kai already at the school and Nalani starting preschool in just one month, it seems to come up a lot. Melina is mostly excited. The other week she said, out of the blue and in a curious instead of nervous way, “I wonder who my friends will be in kindergarten?” Friend Miri from down the street is starting with her, and Kendall and Kai are already there. At an incoming kinder picnic last week she got to meet Kai’s old kindergarten teacher, and at open house she also met Kendall’s. I can tell she appreciates these faces put to her changing world.

Here’s another way I can tell she’s eager: the day after the welcome picnic at her new school, Melina told me she wanted to learn how to read. She “reads” stories constantly, flipping through the pages and telling the story out-loud either from memory or her own imagination. I’ve been gently asking her for months whether she wants to learn how to sound out the words on the page, and until the other week she always said “no thank you.” Once she said yes, I had to sift through our odd collection of children’s books to find a few Dr. Suess early readers, then bought her a stage one reader of The Lorax. Sounding out one or two pages per night, she finished her first book within a week.

Swimming has been more of a challenge. She’s taking lessons without Emma this session, and is not thrilled about the idea of getting into the pool. For the first two classes I got special permission to sit on the bench by the pool instead of on the other side of the glass with all the other parents. Funny thing is, once she’s in, she’s fine. She follows every single direction and jumps and dunks her head under water with enthusiasm. She just doesn’t want to be let go. Last week I was able to slip behind the glass, and at the end of the lesson the teacher told me: “Her skills are strong and she likes dunking her head under water. Once her confidence kicks in she’s going to take off really quickly. ”

As I’ve said before, Melina often acts wise beyond her years (ok, Mama boasting), has a canny sense of logic, and an amazing memory for (mostly) pertinent facts. Like me, she takes her time with just about any task and gets easily sidetracked. Other times she’s all silliness. And then there are the time’s when she’s all drama.

She’s still extremely attached to Purple Bachie (her little lovey who she recently tried to re-name “Mint,” but it hasn’t really stuck), she still gets obsessively attached during preschool drop-off if the kids are already playing outside and her window-waving routine is broken, and like any person, she still has her moments when everything is colliding. We hear these loud and clear. When I mentioned Nalani’s stubbornness to teacher Yolanda, she wisely observed that “Melina’s stubborn, too, but she picks her battles.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Every Wednesday on the drive home from preschool Melina tells me what they did for something called Big Circle. Oftentimes it involves games or a race, and it seems around once a month they do musical chairs. She always tells me, “And guess who won musical chairs, Mama. I did!” I figured she kept winning in an “everyone wins” sorta way. Until I talked to Miss Tammy, and she said “Oh, Melina’s on a winning streak with that one, for sure. She watches like a hawk and scopes out the situation, and she’s reeeeeaal quiet about it.”

That’s my girl.

Happy fifth birthday, Melina. As my first, you’ll always be my baby.

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