My nephew invited us out to the lake after lunch for an afternoon on his family’s pontoon boat.
This is Eliana on the knee board. The girl isn’t afraid to try anything.
And she stayed up!
Leaving the house this morning to take Eliana and Karys to school, Karys asked me to come and eat lunch with her.
“Sometime”, I said and left it at that.
And then I decided to surprise her.
I mean, I better take advantage of the fact that she wants me or Carmi to come eat with her.
Since somebody else obviously decided that 2nd grade is the cutoff for parents having lunch at school.
So I went.
And speaking of Eliana… I was standing outside the school cafeteria doors waiting for Karys’ class to come when Eliana’s class lined up along a wall just down the hall.
And when Eliana saw me… oh. my.
If there had been a rock anywhere around, she most certainly would have crawled right under it.
Then… poor child… her class walked right by me on their way to the bathrooms. He.
She looked the other way.
Oh. I was so tempted to run up and give her a big hug.
But the humiliation would have been too great and she couldn’t have returned to school.
Karys, on the other hand, was very glad to see her daddy.
She sprinted from her place in line and ran straight for me but I waved her back.
Then I took her hand as she walked by. And we strolled in.
The little African-American girl behind us pointed to Karys and said, “She’s my friend.”
And Karys ran over to a girl waiting to pay for lunch who smiled really big as they chatted for a few seconds.
And another girl seated with a different class yelled, “K-a-a-a-r-y-s!”
The girl waved vigorously. So, of course, Karys bounded over to chat with her for a few seconds.
Yep. She’s our little social butterfly.
At Eliana’s request, I signed her up today for a character-building program called Girls on the Run at her school.
Starting next week, a group of 3rd-grade girls will meet together twice a week after school. Over a 12-week period, volunteer coaches and mentors will use running as a tool to teach the girls very specific and well-defined social and personal skills. The program culminates in a non-competitive 5K (3.1 mile) run event in early December.
We think it will be a good experience for her.