Apologies for the blurry pics. So this is still part of UN day (although I'm not quite sure of the connection). In the classrooms, the kids had little demonstrations for the parents. This one involved putting an egg in a cup of water to prove it sinks. Then the kids add progressively more salt until the egg floats. This takes a lot longer than I had anticipated but is strangely impressive when it actually works (I had my doubts).
It was United Nations day at Schuyler's school and each of the classes has been studying a different aspect of different countries. There appeared to be an emphasis on the environment (or at least a lot of animals and trees were used in the displays). I wish I were better. I'd like to say I wandered through all the displays and learned something. Or that I got a better idea of what Schuyler does all day besides paint her clothes and wedge dirt into every part of her body. But I didn't.
I did like the fact that Schuyler is studying my mother's motherland but conveying that fact was kind of like explaining sunspots. And we got to spend time with Schuyler in her element and have a picnic with her and the other parents. Unfortunately, we were among the few parents who turned up without a picnic blanket and had to plop ourselves down on the moist grass.
It was odd: All the parents were on these little blanket islands within a few feet of one another but self-contained in their family nucleus. It's hard to cross that boundary and get a conversation going with other parents. Outside of our pre-existing friendships, it's been hard to get to know the other parents. We see many of them frequently but only in passing when we are all in a hurry to ferry our kids home. I'm sure this will change as the kids get older and sleepovers and birthday parties plague our schedule. For now, it's nice to at least have some comrades in arms on the battlefield.
Schuyler saw me make dinner once. Once. It happened to be salad. Since then, she has inferred that, after we put her to bed, we go down every single night and eat a big, leafy salad and not the occasional nachos or pizza. Tonight just confirmed this for her as she got to help me make our Cobb salad for the night which she absolutely loved and picked at it the whole time including the healthy bits. She has a curious palate.
These are the moments that are great. Making a salad with my little girl and soaking in her enthusiasm for the little things in life like the miracle of the egg slicing device (does that even have a real name?).
So we have found a parental Nirvana: The playground at Schuyler's school is furnished with loads of things to play on, sheltered from the sun and other elements by a gigantic tent roof thing, and equipped with wireless internet access. Oh, and the kids like it too.
After an early morning trip into town for yet another doctor's appointment (and a special breakfast at papa's office) we drop Schuyler at school for Character Day. The students dressed up as a character from a favourite book. We looked in Schuyler's closet and got lucky. She was Olivia.
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