LIttle Miss Organizer

Turns out Lily may have inherited my bossing, I mean coaching, genes. I worked in her class yesterday for the second time all year and learned something new about my daughter.

First, it's fun to see her interacting with her peers. Most of the time Lily is just tagging along behind Ella and her friends - the pesty little sister doing whatever the big kids tell her to because she's thrilled they're paying attention to her.

It turns out that at school she's the one leading the others in their playtime. Yesterday she was playing ball with one little girl, E, and another girl, M, wanted to join them. M's little sister wanted to play ball, too. E had a bit of a fit at M's joining the game, but Lily rearranged everyone into a triangle and gave instructions on how they could all play together. E walked off in a huff, with Lily behind her saying, "But we can all play together." I intervened and told Lily that she needed to let M and her sister play, and she said that E didn't want to let them. I explained to E that if she didn't want to play ball she could go find something else. After that, E played along and Lily got everyone organized for some good catching.

I commented on it to the teacher, who told me that Lily is frequently the one who gets the kids set up for games. Jennie said that the kids sometimes tell Lily she is bossy, but mostly they follow her directions because they've figured out she can get things organized.

I thought about that a lot for the rest of the day and realized that I've been seeing that side of Lily at home without realizing it. When Lily and Molly from next door play, Lily is always leading the way with Molly right behind. I thought it was Lily enjoying being the big girl for a change and Molly enjoying playing with the big girl. But thinking about it more, I realized that Lily isn't being bossy, she's just organizing their activities.

I've been surprised a lot by Lily lately. It's taken me a while to realize how big she is. I still tend to think of her as my baby, despite the arrival of the new baby. But she really is a big girl with her own sweet, funny, bossy personality.