when i came down the stairs yesterday morning, very sleepy still at 6:30am, i found mary polly on the couch, dressed for school and trying to finish a book. clearly, she was gripped. her gaze did not even lift from the pages as i snapped this picture. can you possibly know what that does inside me? her room is a pit and she will NOT practice the piano, but look at her! even better…a detail you must know but cannot see…is that she is wearing her own new version of the shirt. she got it two days ago and she is, true to form, wearing it here for the second day in a row. in fact, she left in it yesterday to go camping with her daddy and will probably return still wearing it today. how darling is she?

when she left for school she still had tears in her eyes from the ending of the book. when we both realized i had forgotten to put her snack in her backpack, she said with a melancholy sigh, that’s ok mama, i don’t need a snack today. like she couldn’t possibly think of eating at a time like this.