Francesca turns 6

This series of photos begins with Kindergarten graduation, a momentous event in Francesca's young life and the necessary prerequisite to - finally - being a 'grader!' The woman in the top photos was Francesca's K teacher, Ms. Kathy (the great).

The summer was spent in a whirlwind of camps - swimming, nature, performance, gymnastics - and short trips to San Diego for a week in June, Oregon for a long weekend in July, then Aptos, a small town near Santa Cruz, for a week in August. The second and third rows of photos are all from the San Diego trip -- the beach at La Jolla, Francesca's papou's (grandfather) factory, Soak City USA (water park extraordinaire), Sea World, the Coronado Beach. We had a really great week and between the hotel pool, Soak City, and the ocean Francesca was in the water every day. The long weekend in Oregon was at a friend's home in the woods close to the California border. It did us all good to just be in such a beautiful and isolated spot where Matthew and Francesca enjoyed sleeping outside at night to supplement other summer camping and where Francesca returned again and again to the rope swing. Aptos was the last summer adventure. We rented the same house that we rented last summer and again enjoyed the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the locals Hidden Beach just a few minutes' walk from our home, where we saw schools of dolphin playing in the water. This year we also returned to famous Santa Cruz boardwalk mini golf and added in a whole host of new rides. Which reminds me that the real last summer adventure for Francesca took place the week before school when she and her good friend Fiona and Fiona's family spent the entire (as in from opening in the morning til they were kicked out in the evening) day at Six Flags Magic Mountain. She was ecstatic, exhausted, and in awe of the wonder that is Six Flags.

The last six months have encompassed lots of new skills beginning with learning how to truly swim. Francesca can now readily get herself across the full length of a pool and her favorite water activity is diving, including nine feet down by herself, to retrieve things from the bottom of the pool. She is clamoring to snorkel and scuba and last night she dreamt of going scuba diving with her whole family (including our two cats Giacomo and Toulouse in mini scuba gear) and finding a clam that opened up to give her a pearl.

Her reading skills keep getting better and Francesca is showing all the signs of being descended from two consummate bookworms. She is reading at a startling pace and every day begins and ends with books. Since her birthday on September 9 every single day has involved reading from the First Encyclopedia of the Human Body, prompting Francesca to change her career goal (after playing basketball for Cal, of course) from jump rope instructor to doctor. Plus her improved reading and writing skills means that when I annoyed her this morning she disappeared for a few minutes and returned triumphant to present a multi-colored note declaring "I dont like when you intrupt me."

The joy of riding a two-wheeler was discovered with her zio David, who helped her take off her training wheels and take off on two wheels over Labor Day weekend. David is an avid cyclist and Francesca very much wanted for him to be the one to teach her to ride. Francesca took to it quickly and is now dashing around and experimenting with sharp turns, speed, and riding one hand, no hands, one foot, no feet -- it's better not to look.

The following weekend was Francesca's birthday, celebrated in great style and with well over twenty kids at the B.I.G. gym, a huge gymnastics space where everyone got to run and tumble and climb and trampoline and hula hoop and plunge into a giant pit of foam blocks and swing on a super high swing before stuffing themselves silly with cake covered in very pink frosting. On the sports front, Francesca is currently on a soccer team called the Rainbow Dolphins (a name clearly chosen for its ability to strike terror into the hearts of their opponents). She is loving it and demonstrates a somewhat alarming willingness to stop the opponent's ball from entering the goal at any cost.

Of course the big transition this past month has been entering first grade, which Francesca took to in about 30 seconds. The sting of being the youngest in her class is now tempered by younger Kindergarteners and she simply loves school. At back to school night we got to see Francesca's 'all about me' folder which included a page on her favorite foods, self reported as sushi and calamari (along with a lovely drawing of a tuna roll and a many tentacled squid). These are not surprising food favorites for a girl who loved salmon when she was all of seven months old. Note that she prefers to have sushi and calamari at a restaurant rather than at home. In fact, Francesca has decided that she loves eating in restaurants and would like to have dinner out every night. We see Manhattan in her future.

In the midst of all this activity Francesca will regularly pause and muse over "what will it be like to be six." In her words, "I don't know what to expect from being six. Will I lose my first tooth? What will that feel like? How will it feel different to be six instead of five?" So it only seems appropriate to close with the words of A .A. Milne:

When I was One,
I had just begun.

When I was Two,
I was nearly new.

When I was Three,
I was hardly Me.

When I was Four,
I was not much more.

When I was Five,
I was just alive.

But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever.
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

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