I find that my yearly resolutions come around my birthday, not the New Year. And so, one of my future goals was to take Flipper camping, to commit to it and follow through, and not let our weekends get filled up with other things, as they do with increasing frequency in the spring and summer months.

So...I committed. I bought a tent, a large, four-person tent that is currently taking up about 9/10ths of the available space in the living room. See below...

Isn't it great?? Can't you see us, snug in our sleeping bags, gazing at the stars through our mesh ceiling, discussing how nice it is to be without the dogs for a day or two ... or, more likely, discussing what is really on her poor little mind these days: the shifting sands of kindergarten friendships and death. Dying. What happens to dead people. Why they can't talk anymore. Where she will be buried. How much she will miss me. And on and on. I wish I could blame the next-to-last chapter of "Charlotte's Web" on our recent morbid pre-bed talks, but I think it is just her age. That, and the small cemetery that borders our afternoon walk.

Such cheerful pillow talk is only interrupted by other issues bothering her these days, that of friendship. For most of the year, she has played exclusively with one little girl. They adore each other, and play together for hours, just the two of them. But in the fall, that little girl will be moving on to first grade, and Flipper will not. I predicted that this would cause issues, and it has. The other girl is starting to play with the older girls, the other 6 year olds.

Brief explanation: Waldorf kindergarten is multi-age, from young four year olds to six year olds. At her school, students cannot move on to first grade until they are 6 by June 1. Flipper, who will turn 5 on May 25, is one of the young ones. And so it is happening, the other little girl is trying to establish friendships with her peer group, the other rising first graders, and Flipper is being, at times, left out.

Two nights ago she cried and cried about it, after telling us that she didn't want to go to school. So I wormed it out of her, her hurt feelings, her disappointment, how hard it was to play with others when she really just wants things to go back to how they were a few months ago. Poor Flipper! But this is part of growing up, of life.

Recently I have been reading a lot about fear-based parenting, about our desire to shield our children from ALL of life's bumps and bruises, and how, in the end, this doesn't help them grow inside or develop coping skills. My mothering instinct is to call the other mom, arrange a playdate, do SOMETHING so she can be with her friend again. So I stay out of it, encourage Flipper to play with some of the other kids, remind her that you can't make someone play with you. But it is hard. On a lighter note, I have been encouraging her to set out clothes for the next day before bedtime. I think it backfired a bit, and unleashed a touch of the obsessive-compulsive that lurks within. See below...

Note the shoes, already tied. The reality of having to UN-tie them just to put them ON in the morning seems to not have occurred to her. Note the socks, with her pants legs stuffed into them, scarecrow-style. Where does she get this? And why?

Read more about Leigh at her blog Flipper and Me.