belly giggles.

she likes that she was the "chosen one" today ... the one that got to use the orange chair first.  (after ripping off the grandmotherly chair skirt that covered those gorgeous wooden legs).

the orange chair that i spied from across the thrift store ... i just couldn't walk away and leave it there (for $29.99! no less!) ... i think it wants to live in my someday studio.  don't worry ... it passed the smell test.  and the sit test.  and the wiggle test.  and then it came home and was promptly washed up.  and dried in the crazy march sunshiney warmth.

she's a tough one, i tell ya.

you have to be ready to harness her energy.  because there is a lot of it ... she's either totally up or completely down.  my sweet and sour coconut girl.

she's in gymnastics now ... stella begged to take gymnastics ... cora wanted to dance.  dance classes started somewhere back in september or something like that ... so we asked if she'd settle for gymnastics for awhile.

she said no.

and we went to sign up stella ... and cora spied a purple sparkly leotard ... and that was it.  she wanted to be in gymnastics too.

stella complains before gymnastics ... oh ... just about every time.

cora?  no complaints.  the girl loves the bouncing and the jumping and the rolling and the flipping. 

i had a rare opportunity to drop her off and pick her up from school this afternoon on my own. 

life is crazily dropping us to our knees with another very sick grandparent (our dear papa joe) ...

and cora and i had a few extra moments before school so we stopped for a quick jaunt at the park ... we talked about being sad and missing him.  about wanting to go and visit him ... but not sure if the hospital will allow kids.  we talked about where he is ... and how he has lots of people that love him that traveled down to be with him.  we talked about how much he loves her and her siblings.  we talked about our last day with them before they left for arizona ... and how we ate mexican food and went swimming. 

she's a thinker, my girl is.  she may put on a brave face and is beginning the "whatever" phase ... but my girl internalizes.  stella will self centeredly get by, finn will be oblivious ... but i worry about cora and her little thoughts.  quite a bit.

i picked her up on the other end of the school day ... and she sat in the backseat rattling off the day's adventure.

"sydney was crying because mustafah puked loudly all over stellie and devin because he ate too much snack and too fastly and the school gave them new clothes but they only had boy clothes so stellie had to wear boy colors except for the pants because they were pink and purple but sometimes boys might want to wear pink and purple ... isn't that funny?"

  

she giggled and shrugged her shoulders in my rear view mirror. 

she helped me rip apart the chair skirt after i lost my scissors and she donned a pink leotard and a pink tutu and showed me how the chair was perfect for jumping. 

she belly giggled at the thought of jumping on mama's "new" chair ... and about stellie's boy clothes ... and about how the wind blew through her crazy hairdo while the clouds whispered of coming rain.