Downs With Ups

I’ve had a smile on my face all morning.  The reason for my smile?  It’s the vision I’ve had in my mind’s eye since I woke up around 7.00 this morning.

As I slept, I could hear footsteps coming down the hall.  In my subconsciousness, I realised the person was wearing shoes.  Sensing that this was unusual, I slowly became conscious, listening for further sounds.  I wasn’t at all worried, more perplexed.

The footsteps came into my room.  I reached over to feel my partner beside me.  Who else would be in the house, wearing shoes at this hour, I wondered.  The person was now standing beside my bed.  I could hear them breathing.

I sleepily opened my eyes and saw Poppet.  She was looking at me expectantly, beaming from ear to ear.  I could see she was wearing her school dress and had even brushed her hair.

My first reaction was, ‘Oh shit, we’ve slept in,’ my heart racing.  I quickly dismissed that thought realising that the alarm hadn’t gone off.  Now I was completely confused.  Poppet was awake and dressed for school.  Normally, we need to use all sorts of tactics to wake her each morning and keeping her focussed as she gets ready for school is a challenge.  Normally, she uses every available second to get ready, Poppet-style, taking us up to the very last minute before she would be late.

This morning however, she was standing before me, ready to go to school.  “Hello, my gorgeous girl.  How are you this morning?”  I mumbled sleepily.

“Hello!  I’m good,” she replied enthusiastically.

“Did you have a good sleep?”

“Yes,” she answered impatiently.  I could sense that she really only wanted me to comment on her dress.

“You’re up early, aren’t you?  And you’ve even got yourself dressed.”  She continued to smile at me.

“Well done, Poppet,” I said as I sat up.

“Let’s have brekkie,” she said eagerly.  As she turned to walk out of my room, she explained, “I want to show Cathy that I’m a big girl now and can get dressed all on my self.”

“That’s a great idea.  She’ll be so pleased with you,” knowing that Poppet’s aide, Cathy, would realise how important this was for her.

I watched Poppet walk towards the door and took in her whole image.  This is the moment I’ve been reliving all day, smiling to myself.  My delightful daughter had indeed got herself dressed.  She had on her school dress and had even managed the buttons.  Underneath the dress, she wore a pair of winter school pants.  One leg of the pants had been caught by an errant sock and was tucked in at the ankle.  The socks she chose to wear were white.  They looked very bright against the dark background of navy blue pants and her black school shoes.

Without wanting to dampen her spirits, I said nothing.  We made our breakfast and sat down to eat it.

“You’ve done really well, getting yourself dressed.  I’m really proud of you.”  Poppet smiled.

“It’s going to be hot today, Poppet,” I said to her, vaguely hoping she may reconsider her choice of attire.  Not one to pick up on subtlety, Poppet simply took in that piece of information, nodded and continued to eat her breakfast.

I guess she can always take off the pants if she got too hot at school, I figured, and I’d rather Cathy sees the full effect of Poppet’s initiative.

As she opened the front door to walk to school, I had one last crack at it.  “You don’t think you’ll be cooler without your long pants on?”

“Nah, it’s alright.”

“Okay, my sweet.  Off you go and have a great day.”

I expected she would learn a lesson about choosing clothes appropriate to the weather, but was more thrilled about this turn of events.  She’s been able to master yet another skill, I thought.  I mentally ticked off the list, ‘getting dressed, without cajoling’.