Madeline has a quick sense of humor and to all our benefit she uses it advantageously to negotiate with Lake. She wanted to put the sunscreen on Lake and he was trying to argue his way out of it. (He said it was not hot outside.) She said even though it was not hot out, the UV rays are still present and what we’re protecting your face from. From the “Sun Power,” she said. “You forgot the ‘ers’,” he said. “It’s ‘Sun Powers!'” he corrected. She had him in her thrall. Sun Powers are something Lake invented as the strongest super hero powers in the world. He assiduously applied his sunscreen.

I was laughing so hard!

Friday Lake was dawdling over his dinner. In all fairness I had aided him in spoiling his appetite with a snack of peanut butter and blueberry jam waffle (his choice) before dinner. He was visibly worn out and famished when he woke up from his after school nap. He has a cold and just completed two full days of Kindergarten. So I capitulated and let him have his chosen pre-dinner breakfast snack but then later during dinner as energy levels waned I thought I’d poke him a little to see if I could motivate him.

I said, “Oh my! I see I finished all my dinner, I think I’ll try one of those new cookies!”

He told me I was boasting. I paused to consider that one. I agreed I was a bit and apologized. It’s not very nice manners to boast, I agreed, but that I was teasing him a little and it was meant all in good fun. He finished his dinner. Come to think of it, we forgot all about the cookies we were so tired!

Lake is five. This beloved ABBA song reflects our mixed feelings about Lake’s milestone of matriculating elementary school this week (substituting pronouns):

Schoolbag in hand

She leaves home in the early morning

Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile

I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness

And I have to sit down for a while

The feeling that I’m losing her forever

And without really entering her world

I’m glad whenever I can share her laughter

That funny little girl

Slipping through my fingers all the time

I try to capture every minute

The feeling in it

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Do I really see what’s in her mind

Each time I think I’m close to knowing

She keeps on growing

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sleep in our eyes, her and me at the breakfast table

Barely awake, I let precious time go by

Then when she’s gone there’s that odd melancholy feeling

And a sense of guilt I can’t deny

What happened to the wonderful adventures

The places I had planned for us to go

(Slipping through my fingers all the time)

Well, some of that we did but most we didn’t

And why I just don’t know

Slipping through my fingers all the time

I try to capture every minute

The feeling in it

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Do I really see what’s in her mind

Each time I think I’m close to knowing

She keeps on growing

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture

And save it from the funny tricks of time

Slipping through my fingers

Schoolbag in hand she leaves home in the early morning

Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile

SONGWRITERS: BENNY GORAN BROR ANDERSSON, BJOERN K. ULVAEUS