Am I being paranoid?

It has been a full week without any playground incidences, but I'm still keeping a close eye on the situation. The latest development is that I suspect the girl may be trying to "steal" a friend of Marika's but hey, people can't be stolen if they're really your friend, right?

I saw Marika try to join her classmate on the playground (it is her favorite friend in her class and has been, since the beginning of the school year), but she had gone to walk around with "that girl" (this classmate had told me, minutes earlier, that she had been invited to "that girl's" house - Marika assured me that this did NOT go on in front of her, so I was relieved). I shook my head no at her, indicating that she should stay away from them. Marika looked sad about this, saying she wanted to be with her classmate. I explained to her later, that "three is a crowd". Even later, though, as Marika decided to leave and was trying to say good-bye to her classmate, the classmate either didn't see her or ignored her (I prefer to think it was the former). Marika tried a couple of times without success (she does speak pretty softly) so I called to her and told her to come and leave, so she wouldn't feel any worse.

What do you think? The paranoid mother in me wonders if "that girl" is still trying to get back at Marika by trying to befriend Marika's classmate. Honestly, though, Marika doesn't look like her feelings are hurt and she certainly hasn't said anything of the sort to me, but...

So I feel bad for Marika, I instructed to keep her distance from "the girl" - who (it appears) may be trying to steal her friends. I know this will all blow over soon but it bothers me that anybody would (appear to) want to persist in hurting my daughter's feelings. *sigh* I know that the kids are all still trying to figure out their social positions and who their friends are. Things will settle down soon (or so I keep telling myself).

For anybody else whose week is starting badly, cheer up! For today only (9/14), Victoria' Secret is offering free shipping! Check out their home page (promo code: FREESHIPPING) and go shopping - swim suits are on clearance!

And finally... Mondays are sorting days at the library's used bookstore, so Tuesday mornings are the best times to scout out "new" books. For the past few weeks, I've seen another Asian lady there (her kids are a year or two older than Mika) and when she found out I was now looking for Nancy Drew books, she invited me to come over and peruse her stacks of books she was wanting to get rid of - and that she'd sell them to me at the library rate (which is dirt cheap) so that she could buy more books! Woohoo! So, I'm going over to her house this Friday. =)

Mika is reading like a firestorm and Marika began taking her own AR quizzes last week. In fact, Marika only has to pass one more quiz before she gets her FIRST reading certificate. Yay! It's so nice to see both girls excelling in school... that all of our pushing and peristence seems to be helping them develop their own steady work habits in school (at least, I'd like to hope so!). Mika even got sent to the principal's office last Friday to be recognized for being a good student in the classroom. Isn't that funny? Being sent THERE to be commended? My, how times have changed!

While Marika was in preschool, I used to think that her handwriting was just atrocious. However, after seeing her classmates in school, I've decided that it's actually quite nice. It really does amaze me that some children her age don't know their letters or numbers yet and that quite a few have great difficulty in writing a lowercase "e" or "y". It really makes you wonder about their parents and whether or not the kids were ever even allowed to watch "Sesame Street".