Things Jemma Says: Counting

I'm so grateful for the special little one-on-one times I've snuck in with my girls these last weeks, especially with Jemma. I expected to have another year of half-day school for her, and this full-day kindergarten schedule has me the tiniest bit weepy. Annie and I did some school shopping on our own and read in cozy, companionable silence together one day while Jemma was at a friend's; yesterday Jemma and I found ourselves at the pool for an extra hour when Annie went home to play with Lucy for a bit. We splashed around and pretend-fought over a yellow ring, bobbed in the deep end, and jumped in holding hands so many times I'm sure the lifeguard was sick of us splashing him. We finally got out, sat side by side on our chaise lounges, and Jemma said, "What do you want to talk about?" like we were old friends.

Today Annie was at a pool with a friend, so Jemma and I walked to town to get frozen yogurt. We sat on a bench and ate it, slurped great quantities of water from the corner drinking fountain, and then headed home. She skipped ahead of me on the sidewalk, her skirt flouncing in the breeze, and then she started counted by twos. "Two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve . . ." she hesitated, but she kept going. I thought she'd get to twenty, maybe. She got a bit farther than that, encouraged only by my large smile and big eyes and nodding head.

"Ninety-four, ninety-six, ninety-eight . . . I don't know what comes after ninety-eight," she said.

"Hmmm," I said. "That is tricky."

"It's not ninety- nine."

"Nope."

"Thirty?"

"Nope. One hundred," I told her.

"One hundred!" And she skipped off ahead to home, where we read four Mo Willems books and watched Curious George until Annie came back. I'm going to miss this little one next week something fierce.