proud mama

My little Princesita honestly never ceases to amaze me.

She is a beautiful, energetic and outgoing young lady. At six years old, she is starting to develop a wide range of hobbies and interests, both artistic and athletic, and has socially settled in extremely well to her elementary school.

She almost made a double play yesterday morning at T-ball--a play that would make almost any Mama Llama proud, when she, playing the pitcher's position, ran the ball up to home to out the home's runner, then threw the ball right to third--if the third base player had not been drawing pictures in the dirt with the toe of her shoe, it would have been a great play! Her little teammate is a dear, but does not yet have quite the attention span to really focus on the game--and her father is the coach, which already means she isn't going to pay perfect attention, almost by default.

Last week La Princesita and I decided to ride bikes over to her friend's home to play for the afternoon. We packed up some water and I led her through 2 1/2 miles of streets over to her friend's home, then a few hours later we rode home. Upon our return, she announced that her training wheels were "slowing her down" so I took a deep breath and removed them.

Over the course of four days she taught herself how to ride her bicycle without training wheels.

She did not put me through half of what I remember putting my father through when learning to ride without trainers. I remember his 6 foot 2 inch frame on my little bike, showing me that yes, it IS really possible and that the bicycle IS rideable. I remember him endlessly running down the road holding onto the back of my bike so I could get my balance.

I don't think I could thank my Princesita enough for NOT putting me through all that!!! Sorry, Dad, bless your soul, you haven't had your revenge quite yet!

We rode seven whole miles this morning, la Princesita and I. It was hard on her returning but she had a wonderful time and came home talking about all the beautiful nature we saw. We have something special we can do together now, shorter distances with her little brother (he rode a mile with us but training wheels started getting loose and I have decided I just need to now pack a wrench every time we leave with him on his bike) and it is really lovely time together, just she and I.

What has been even more poignant to me, however, has been watching her learn to master this new skill completely independent of me, except for my mere presence to give her the confidence and to make it "fun" by playing "traffic cop" while she and the Young Prince rode down the sidewalk. She has an incredibly strong will, motivation and focus that I so admire--yet is so fragile in that I can see (and have been told by a former teacher of hers) that I will never, ever have to push her as she is perhaps 10 times the perfectionist than I have ever been--and I am a perfectionist to the Nth degree.

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Not to leave the Young Prince out of this:

He ran to me on Friday when I came to pick him up from preschool, excitedly saying, "Mommy, Mommy, I got a sticker! I was the best helper!" He was obviously very pleased with himself, and his teacher (who also had been La Princesita's first preschool teacher) confirmed that indeed, he had helped clean-up more than all the other students in the class. And he knew he had done well.

He then walks around the entire preschool class to give all of his little friends a hug good-bye for the day, and kisses the hands (or legs...whatever he can reach at the time) of his teachers. He very much follows his sister in his desire to Spread the Love--filling all with warm fuzzies and making me extremely proud.

Together, they have their moments, but all in all they play amazingly well, love to cuddle and feel incomplete without being able to kiss the other good night. I pray I can do all I can do to help them maintain this beautiful relationship they are developing.

I am one proud Mama Llama.