Thursday, October 15, 2009

Oh Pippi...

Pippi rolled out of bed clutching a brown package on the day of her birthday. "I can open this package today right Mom?"

"Sure, but don't you want to wait for the rest of the family to wake up? Hey--Wait for me!" I chase Pippi down the stairs. She hands me a knife so I can cut the tape off. She then proceeds to tear open the package containing four wrapped gifts. She quickly slips the Halloween socks on her feet, begs to play Dominos, asks if she can bring her new Encyclopedia of Horses to school, and hides the UNO cards where Bardo cannot reach them. She runs upstairs and takes a very very long time to get dressed; I suspect she was sidetracked by her encyclopedia. Bardo and Pippi play at the table while they are supposed to be eating. I gently inform Pippi that I'm worried because her clothes don't match. "I don't care. Nobody's going to make fun of me on my birthday!" She runs upstairs, brushes her teeth, comes back down and slips on her pink cowboy boots, dons her heavy backpack and races the Dutch boys (they are our neighbors and they really are from the Netherlands) to school on her new black butterfly mountain bike (an early present from us).

* * *

Bardo, Noel, and I arrive at the school a few minutes before Pippi's lunch time. We are quite the spectacle. I push a full double stroller, but oddly the stroller is full of lunch items, cupcakes for Pippi's class, and my diaper bag. The baby is in my arms, and Bardo is patiently hanging on to the side of the stroller anticipating Pippi's arrival. Pippi turns the corner, her eyes light up, she keeps walking in line until she sees "the nod" from her teacher. And then she runs to me wrapping her arms around me, so happy I'm there. Then she panics. "Mom, you told me you would bring sushi." "Did I?" She starts to panic some more. Her eyes widen and survey the stroller, she says that some of her classmates have never seen sushi before and she wanted to show them... She's almost to the point of tears. I squeeze her shoulders saying, "I promised I would bring sushi, right?" She looks and me and nods. "Then don't worry about it." I give her my most encouraging smile, and we head to the lunch room.

Here is a picture of Pippi with her cheeks full of her most favorite food in the world.


Pippi and her buddy Blake, seated next to her in the above picture, pass out the cupcakes together. Blake is much faster at passing out cupcakes. Pippi gives each cupcake carefully, conversing with each classmate, making sure they get just the one they want. She watches with a cute smile as Blake passes out some of her cupcakes to beggars from another class. I was perturbed, but she seemed to enjoy watching all the kids have such a good time in the name of her birthday.
***
Every day Pippi rides home with the Dutch boys. The moment she walks in the door she calls, "I'm ho-o-ome." Bardo and I respond, "Yay!" Every day. For some reason, on her birthday, I was outside. Whoops.

She panicked a little, but found us quickly. She snacked, played a game of Dominoes with me, "checked out" her birthday cake, and finished up her piano assignments. After a few free minutes I drove her to her piano teacher's house.

Her piano teacher was delighted with her. "She was so prepared today. No theory homework today because it's her birthday and she's all caught up. Did you know she had all of her pieces memorized?" She allowed Pippi to pick 2 stickers and told her she would remember this special lesson forever. Pippi glowed.

We rushed home to a small party with our Texas family. When you don't have grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins around, you adopt. The party went well. Luckily Jan caught the dog licking the cake before too much damage was done.

And then Pippi ran off to Primary activity days. I picked her up at 8 pm on the nose and rushed her home to bed.

I think eight is going to be the best age ever, and I think Pippi thinks so too.

Pippi in the rainbow dress on a bridge near our house. Taken August 2009.

7 comments:

tenacious d said...

Oh what a fun post! You told the story perfectly. Happy birthday, Pip! You've reached a truly great age. The picture of her with her chopsticks, eating sushi, was my absolute favorite. That's what happens when you've been blessed to be able to live in Japan at a young age.

Sheralie said...

That sushi story is great. Happy Birthday to one of our favorite girls!

Unknown said...

What a fabulous day for a wonderful girl! Good job Silly Witch on helping make it a great day! And good job to Pippi for making up her mind that it was going to be a good day!

Jecca Lee Ivie Johnson said...

Kolby wishes he could have been there for sushi day. That's his idea of a birthday cake. Happy birthday Pippi!

Unknown said...

I am so glad she had a fun birthday. I'm glad you tell us in detail what went on since we are so far away. When you were in school, I don't think I'd ever heard of suschi.

Christine said...

You made her birhtday so special! What an exciting, happy day for her. Favorite picture--Pippi eating sushi at school! Happy Birthday to a bright, lovable girl!

Natalie said...

Happy Birthday Pippi!!!! I also love the sushi in the school cafeteria. I'm glad it was such a great day.