Today was a big day for Bella Spiro Waltzer, our daughter; it might have been a bigger day for my wife and I. Bella is two and a quarter, and her short life has been marked, in our minds at least, by transitions away from us, toward her own independence (I know, she's only 2, we're not talking going off to Africa for the Peace Corps, but it's a big deal to us).
First came leaving her with a sitter for three days a week. Second was leaving her when she was about 1, at a day care nearby, on the Kensington side of Prospect Park, about a 15-minute walk from where we live on the Parade Grounds. The ladies there are Russian - Ukrainian, some of them, like Bella's great-grandparents - and Bella picked up their accent. She calls me 'Daddieh,' and speaks like Irina, who I think is her favorite, "Ahhh, maybe-eh I have cookie...maybe-eh." It's a flat world: we should have sent her to a Chinese day-care center for her career prospects. But... getting back to the topic at hand.
This is another transition. In September, Bella will leave the Russians to go to the Maple Street School, a cooperative day care in Flatbush, or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens (it depends on which real-estate agent you're speaking with) and undergo another changing of the guard, literally. It's a big deal for us and Bella, the kind of event that makes one take pictures, video, reflect, and get a little choked up. We thought it would be a good idea to get Bella acclimated to her new school and new friends by sending her to the Maple Street Day Camp for a week before she makes the transition in the fall. This blog will be a week long chronicle of her experience, and ours, and maybe a little about the world she's trying to find her way in.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment