Sentimental

On Tuesday, April 18, that tooth came out!  Her teacher sent me a picture while I was at my school and I cried a little bit.  According to Evie, she was eating lunch and suddenly felt the tooth come out, so she spit out everything she was eating (and there was a little blood, she adds as a side note), and then she told her teacher who led the other students in singing "Happy Tooth Day" to the tune of "Happy Birthday", and then instructed Evie to go wash her hands.  It was a memorable moment for Evie, whose memory is always astounding so I'm sure she'll be able to recall the event in full detail even at the age of 80.

Today, Evie was a little sick, so I let her stay home from school.  We ended up going to the zoo, in part because I needed to renew our membership in preparation for our visit to Oregon so we can get a discount at Wildlife Safari, and in part because even though she didn't feel so good, she wasn't sickly enough to just laze around the house all day.  And also, I want her to know that on rare occasions, it's okay to take a personal day.  We had so much fun together, just the two of us in a pretty uncrowded zoo.  Evie is now more interested in watching the animals for a while to observe their behaviors, rather than running around trying to see as many as possible.  This is also my preferred way to spend time at the zoo - really checking out these creatures - so we didn't roam all over the whole zoo, but enjoyed the oddities of flamingos, the graceful movements of the newborn hippo, and the running around of a particularly active rhinoceros.  We saw a bird show where Evie got a little afraid of the birds as they swooped overhead while the guide talked about how they like to eat the meat of dead things...  But, she snuggled in my lap and was just precious about it all.

This week, my little girl said so many things that touched my heart.  She is an old soul.

• On Tuesday evening, we got together at my parents' house with Kathy, Rickie, Grandma Jeanne, and Tia who was in town.  As we were saying our goodbyes that evening, Evie was being told "I love you" by Tia and Kathy, and Evie returned their "I love you"s, then looked around the room and said sweetly, "I love everybody."  
• After receiving her special gold dollar from the tooth fairy, Evie asked me, "Why did she bring me gold money?"  I said, "Maybe she has special money."  Evie said, "Or maybe I'm special to the tooth fairy."  I'm glad she knows she's special to so many people.
• One night while putting her to bed, I asked Evie, "What makes you happy?"  Without missing a beat, she said, "When I'm around you."
• In the car on the way to theatre class on Saturday, Evie said out of the blue, "Mama, when you go to heaven, I'll still hang on to you."  I was perplexed by this and said, "How?"  She said, "Well, you'll still have hands, and I'll hold them while you go."  I hope it happens that way.  There could not be a better way to end my life than having Evie hold my hand.