what will we do without Hazel next year?

I went to check out a school for Hazel last night and as I walked through that huge building I felt panicked. Part of the panic came from the thought of sending my little girl away from me to that huge school for so long....but most of it came from wondering how we will all survive at home with out her.

Hazel is truly an amazing big sister and such a huge help to me. Charlie and Emmeline just can't get enough of her. She holds "Hazel School" for them daily....I think they have both learned more from Hazel than from me. She is constantly helping me entertain Emmeline (who is in constant need of entertaining lately). The best thing is that she has such natural compassion for her siblings. It just flows right out of her....the minute they're sad she's dashing around trying to find their special blankie or binkie or something precious she can give them to help them to be forget their troubles. She covers them with kisses and hugs and oozes out words of sorrow and comfort.

Sure, I think a lot of what she does encourages great drama from Charlie, but it also calms him down and makes him happy and usually works much faster than my method of ignoring the drama. It's quite humbling to realize that she is much better at this than I am. I'm sure part of her motivation for being so good is to teach me a thing or two. I'm sincerely hoping to learn from her example. She has a good little heart that Hazel.