Mother's Day Tea

Today was the Mother's Day Tea at Julia and Ace's preschool. As well as being a day to celebrate how incredibly lucky I am to be their mom,  it was also study in how different two siblings can be.
Julia is in the morning preschool. She has been so excited about the performance they were going to do, she has been counting down how many "sweeps" are left until the Mother's Day tea and this morning she was up bright and early dressed in the ladybug dress my mom made, her sparkliest shoes, and her Birthday Girl crown. I laughed (on the inside) at how funny it is that the girl who wants the least attention loves the most attention-grabbing clothes. All the way to school she talked about the songs they would sing and the dancing they would do. She kissed me goodbye in the classroom and suggested I go home and shower and get into some prettier clothes.
When the kids came walking out, Julia was all smiles. Then, she realized how many people were there. The smile faded and her eyes got wider and wider. She danced about half the time, the other half she stood with her hands in her pockets and unintentionally flashed the audience by pulling her dress up over her head.  In other words, she was Julia, and perfect. I loved every minute of her performance and was so proud of her. After the 10 minute show was over, she was so exhausted. She is an introvert by nature, these situations where she is expected to be extroverted (which may or may not be a word) just suck the energy right out of her. We shared a cookie and some lemonade and I told her I was so proud of her. I asked if she had fun singing and dancing and she said "No." and ate another cookie.  We went home and she just wanted to lay down and watch her shows. It had been a very long morning for her.
At 2pm I went to see Ace, who is in the afternoon program. He had also been talking about nothing but Mother's Day Tea for days. When he walked out with his class, he waved to everyone, blew me a kiss, and skipped up to the front of the room. When it was his turn to read from the dinosaur book, he read his rehearsed line and then continued on with two or three extra facts. When they sang, he sang loud. When the danced, he danced with enthusiasm. After his 20 minute show, he was totally energized. He wanted to recap the entire performance, talk about our favorite parts, show off his dance moves some more. He was still bouncing around talking about the day at 6pm. He was Ace, and he was perfect.
They are so very different, and I am so very lucky.