This week, this was Brianna's Saturday-night-go-to-church ensemble: her "party dress" (which has a black velvet top and a very poofy, shiny little miniskirt of very bright gold, blue, red, and green plaid), pink baseball capris with dark pink stripes up the sides and a silver B on the cuff, black socks, pink and orange tennis shoes, and a pale pink feather boa. Accessories included her silver cheerleading pompoms.

Every morning as we drive downtown from our house, Paul expertly enters I-30 and crosses four lanes of heavy traffic in this very short distance in order to make it into the HOV (high ocupancy vehicle, high occupancy in Dallas being more than one) fast lane entrance. His skill always astonishes me. Today I was telling him once again how impressed I was, and he said, "As long as nobody slams on their brakes, because all my maneuvering is based on the assumption that all the cars around me will continue at their same speed of slightly above the speed limit." I said, "Wow, when I drive, I am working on the assumption that all of the cars around me wil do the craziest thing possible at any given moment." "Ah, " he said, "That's called defensive driving." "No, " I said, "That's called terror."

Hooray! Brianna finally got to start at a new school today. She is still in preK, but at this preK, they have little "textbooks" and learn sign language in addition to Spanish. They wear uniforms and get to go into a cafeteria for snacks and meals, just like big school. She is one very happy kid. While her teacher tried to explain stuff to Paul and me, Brianna kept hopping up and coming over and kissing us goodbye, trying to get us to leave so she could get on with her new class. Such a great change from the last few months of clingy tears.
I know some people probably think we have given in to her instead of being firm. If she just wanted to not go to school at all, that's a battle she couldn't win. But the fact is that she's fine with going to school--she just wants to learn new stuff there, and that's a desire that I will humor--and in fact encourage.