May 27th

A big day in big pictures.

We started early at the school.  Little Miss's 'forskoledag'--a sort of open house for all of next year's new students to come in, meet their teachers, and see their classrooms.  I don't necessarily like that I'm the sort of person who cries at these prosaic little milestones.  But I can't help it.  I am.  And I did.

The woman on the right, with the dark hair, has been Emma's teacher for the past four years. She's rather wonderful, and I'm thrilled that it looks like Amanda will be spending the next four years in her keeping.

When we were finished at the school, I surprised Amanda with her first birthday present. 

The only thing she asked for specifically this year was to get her ears pierced.  Well, 'asked' isn't exactly the right word for it.  'Nagged' is a bit weak as well.  She never came so far as to 'insist', but after the second month of negotiations, she did start to talk about it as if it were a foregone conclusion.  A rather brilliant strategy, if you ask me.  By early May, she had her father asking me, "So?  When are you taking her to get it done?"

Happy Birthday, dearest.

She was predictably stalwart throughout. There was a breathy 'ow ow ow' followed by an accusing glare, and an indignant 'that hurt' directed at the wench with the white gun.  I detected a slight tremor right before the second shot, but no tears, no fuss.  And now:

Pink, sparkly loveliness.

That same afternoon was Emma's art show opening. 

As you may or may not recall, last year's show ended up being a bit of an ordeal for me.  (If you're interested, you can read about it here .)   In short, I was grumpy and unimpressed.

Now, I don't mean to brag or anything, but it's almost as if someone in charge heard my grumblings of discontent, and decided to do something about it.  Lest I should be displeased again....

They held the show in the same museum, but they spread the student work throughout the upper galleries so it was mixed in with the stuff on permanent display. There was much more room to move around, and breathe every now and again.  Still crowded, but tolerably so. 

Once again they ignored her paintings and drawings, which I (perhaps mistakenly) tend to see as EM's strong points, and opted for a small, model chair that she had designed.  But it was displayed in a gallery that featured Norwegian chair designs over the past two centuries.  Clearly an attempt at some sort of thematic continuity.  Very cool.  Emma was also impressed, and a little surprised.  "You mean....furniture? can be art?"  Oh--and they chose her chair to feature in the pamphlets and advertisements for the show.  (Just here, I definitely do mean to brag.)

So, without further ado:

EM did not design this particular chair, but I wish she had because I feel strongly that it should be in my house.