With the greatest of ease?

The day started quietly. After breakfast Evie and Scott helped my clean the house. That was a big deal. I generally enjoy cleaning and look forward to doing it each week. However, with the increased time pressure that comes from taking Evie to trapeze (more on that later) I just didn't feel I could do all my usual weekend chores myself. Evie dusted and windexed things, Scott thoroughly cleaned both bathrooms and I did everything else. Scott did the grocery shopping too since we had an extra car for the weekend. He forgot all the vegetables! Oh well, easily remedied!

Trapeze was nerve racking for me. The class is 45 minutes away. Evie and I took a parent-child class when Evie was 3 and she fell in love with it. This class was supposed to be for ages 7+ but the teacher remembered Evie and invited her to join (the last class was supposed to be for 5+ and she blew them out of the water at age 3!). Luckily the teacher is this wonderful, gentle woman who is used to extremely bonded homeschooling pairs. I am right in the studio with everyone. Evie gamely talked to the teacher before class and then even got through introductions before she burst into tears and ran over to me. The teacher wisely asked what was wrong, assured her she could stay with me and then join in whenever she felt up to it. That only took about 2 minutes. By this time I was on edge, is she going to make it? Will she want to leave? Is she happy? Is she miserable? Finally they got on the trapeze and Evie's whole face lit up! The class is tiny so everyone got their own trapeze this week (more students may join next week). Evie learned 4 new hangs and finally got the space to practice what she loves. I almost started to cry. This is a HUGE challenge for her. She is very shy around people she doesn't know well and it takes her a long time to get to know people. I was so proud of her after class I wanted to burst but of course had to keep myself in check or I would ruin the whole thing. When we got out of the building to go home I nonchalantly asked, "So, how did you like trapeze?" "I LOVE IT!" she shouted. Whew!

In the evening we went to a birthday party for the twin babies across the street. They turned one. Their older brother is a good friend of Evie's. The usual neighborhood gang of kids was there, they all know and like each other immensely. During the cake decorating the older brother announced to Evie, "I am not inviting you to my birthday party. It is for boys only." Evie has never been to school, she has never even heard the "If your not nice to me I won't invite you to my birthday party" threat. Tears immediately welled up in her eyes. His mother said something like "how do you teach tact?" Then another friend of Evie's, a girl (they are all the same age) said "how do you know we are going to invite you to ours?" Later Evie was still upset by the whole thing. "Why wouldn't I invite E to my birthday party, he is one of my best friends" I told her she could invite anyone she wanted to. We talked about how sad and left-out she felt when E said he wasn't going to invite her, epecially since they are such close friends. We also talked about how he did have the choice as to who he would invite. Evie was really puzzled about what would make someone turn their back on friendship. The whole "tribe of school boys" thing was inconceivable to her. Interestingly, later in the night when Evie and E were laughing their heads off about something together E said "Well, maybe I'll invite the girls in my neighborhood." Evie gave him a hug. We will see what happens!