A little bragging!!

This weekend, I had an opportunity to be reminded that its OK for a kid to be smart.  I have too much of a tendency to see intelligence (anything beyond a bit above average) as a liability, rather than a gift.  I'm working on it.  So now I'm going to be excited about the accelerated pace (so far) of my daughter's progress, rather than be wary of it or hesitant to share wholesome successes.  And everyone I know that reads my blog is pretty darned intelligent, with some pretty darned bright kids, so I trust it will be received with the right attitude.

I just went to an end-of-the-year parent teacher conference for my Keilana bug.  It was so pleasant.  I've been blessed with great kids, and every now and then in the monotony of motherhood (come on now, as great as it is, we all know that's true) and the challenges of parenting, sometimes I forget that.  Its nice to have someone else around to remind me.  Teacher Lili was very excited to tell me that Keilana exceeded all expectations.  She asked if we work on reading skills at home (I almost responded, "Well, of course!", but remembered that simply isn't true for everyone, particularly in our community where frequently both mom and dad have to work), because she knows all letters and sounds very well and can sound out some simple words.  She counts higher than most kids in her class are able and enjoys simple addition (if you get 2 more, how many will you have?), knows just about every shape and color under the sun and has mastered patterns and syllable counting.  When asked to look in a mirror and draw herself, she drew her face with a pink crayon, her hair with a red one and her eyes with a blue one. :)  More importantly,  her teacher emphasized how outgoing, friendly and remarkably well-behaved she is.  She is well-liked by both her teachers and the other students and almost never forgets the rules (and is never consciously disobedient).  Lili sighed and said, "They should just make more of her!"  Then she looked at Kylie on my lap, smiled and said, "I guess you are!"  It was nice to hear that she's done so well and enjoyed it so much.  Its made me less apprehensive about Kindergarten--with 90% of the day conducted in Spanish, its going to be a challenge.  Lili told me that the dual immersion teachers are amazing and she has total confidence that Keilana will do great.  Phew!!

I can't wait for when I go to Dylan's first parent teacher conference.  "Well, he's doing very well academically, but let's talk about his trouble complying with classroom rules and routines. . . . . ."  Oy.  We're working on it.  When he was about 8 months old, I remember telling my mom that I was pretty sure all the things that made him a lot easier than Keilana at that point were going to make him a lot harder in the long run.  Well, we're there.  When a child's will is 10x stronger than most adults you've met, his attention span is unusually (uncannily) long, and he's tremendously self-contained how do you discipline when he has decided on something other than what you want him to do?  Most of the time he's pretty well behaved, or a simple threat will do the trick, but if he's set his mind on something--wow.  Hitting his bottom so hard it bruises has no effect.  Locking him in his bedroom for hours with no toys does nothing.  If he doesn't want what I made for dinner, he'll go to bed hungry--just so he can win.  Pray for us with this one.  I mean, he's tons of fun, but he's going to give us some major headaches, I'm sure.

And in Kylie news, she's mobile! Not crawling, but moving.  She gets up on all fours (bear crawl style), and gets her feet or knees far enough forward that she can flop her upper body a few more inches forward and continues this "floppy inch worm" (as I call it) until she reaches her goal destination.  And she has mastered scooting backward.  Hopefully it won't be too much longer before she's really crawling--her occasional frustration with this method is starting to get on both our nerves.  And she's a piggie!  She's eating real food now and yesterday she had oatmeal, green beans and squash and still nursed about every 3 hours!!  Must be trying to bulk up--her leg rolls have been looking a bit lean lately.  I haven't had much success getting her to take a bottle, but I think that's because I don't have a pump, so I was trying to give her formula.  Can't blame her.  Have you ever tasted breatmilk?  Its very sweet and mild.  It tastes a little like cantaloupe juice, actually (well, mine does anyway).  If you could liquify cardboard, I'm pretty sure it would taste quite a bit like infant formula.