Aidan just had his first homework assignment - ever! - as a preschooler. I was more nervous than he was and read the instructions posted by the teacher at least three times to ensure that we didn't miss anything important. We had to create a "family quilt." The teacher gave each child a large piece of paper on which he or she was to depict their family.

Aidan and I spent time going through family pictures to capture each member of our family. (Of course, the only updated family picture of all of us is from our spring trip to Florida. The wind is blowing so hard my hair is standing straight up - almost giving it a mohawkish like appearance. But hey - the kiddies look cute!) After picking out the pictures, I did the cutting and he did all the captions. It was a paintaking long process - letter, by letter for him. But we did it. Together. (And if Brennan sucked on a few markers or so in order to amuse himself while we toiled at this project so be it.)

We were proud of our quilt. And I even felt a small pang of mommy accomplishment in surviving the whole experience.

But then we brought it to school. The teachers display every student's family quilt along a long wall in the classroom. Our joint child friendly effort of a quilt was dwarfed in comparision to the other familes' masterpieces. I think we have some serious professional scrapbookers in our midst! They had calligraphy and black and white photos! They had pictures cut out with those oh so fancy scrapbooking scissors that make really neat edges! And do not even get me started on the family with the family credo from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Really.

The teacher hung Aidan's quilt next to his friend Ellie's - whose mommy (my dear friend Christine) let her paste Disney stickers all over it. I think the teacher felt our quilts would stand out less in each other's company. And they do look cute. They look like the work of a four year old. No one told us that they were supposed to be the work of a thirty something.