On friendships, snacks and gardening

Watching a friendship blossom amongst three-year-olds is a pretty powerful experience. Getting to be there firsthand is one of the most valuable aspects of being in a preschool co-op. Mather has a number of friendships at school. Each one a little different, and several of them close. She has some friends amongst the older kids, and she even deigns to talk to a couple of the boys -- but her closest friendship is with Talia. Mather has declared Talia to be both her "very best friend" and her "sister".

Since today at school was my "snack day" (each parent is responsible for preparing and serving the morning snack to school once a month), Mather and I brought in our aprons to work together in the kitchen. Involving Mather is the only way to avoid her whining for me to come out from the kitchen and play with her. But it shouldn't have surprised me when it turned out I had two sous-chefs, as Mather promptly invited Talia to join us in preparing snack. Soon I had them both standing on stools at the kitchen counter helping me peel mandarin oranges and plate blueberries. Since Mather had an apron, Talia needed one too. Fortunately we found a selection of kid-sized aprons in the kitchen.

After prepping snack the two apron clad girls grabbed scissors and headed out to the school garden to (haphazardly) trim some of the plants for reasons only they understand. Talia's sister, 18 m.o. Summer, tagged along after them (relieved of her own pair of scissors by her mother, swapped with a hole punch). Mather still couldn't stop herself from repeatedly warning "Summy" to be careful with her "scissors".

Today was just one of those idyllic days of parenting. After Emily had a hard time alone with her last night (Mather is increasingly fighting bedtime), it was a nice reprieve. Even bedtime was easy tonight. Is it too much to ask for another day like today tomorrow?