Smarties

Dear Cole,

Lets talk about Parent Teacher Conference. But first, we have to go back to October conferences when you were still learning what it meant to behave like a 1st grader, how great your reading was, but how much focus and listening were a problem for you. How hard it was for me to hear these things but how I knew them to be true. Daddy made sure to tell your teacher that it's important to challenge you because boredom is an enemy and make the brightest students seem unruly.

OK, fast forward four months. You've learned what it means to behave like a 1st grader, you are on the fast track with reading, progressing by leaps and bounds, your work with math and numbers and patterns comes easy, and Mrs.O'hara can see glimpses of when you push your skills and knowledge to the absolute max. I wanted to cry in October because I knew you could be more and I wanted to cry last week because I knew you were proving you could be more. She has recommended you for the Gifted and Talented program at Emerald and Daddy and I talked to you about it and you agreed that you'd like to be in the program too. We are so proud of you darling. I mean, center-of-our-soul proud.

Next up, Valentine's Day - you celebrated yesterday at school with a sandwich making party and exchanged cards with your classmates. You made homemade cards - they were awesome; butterflies for the girls and aliens for the boys. The day left you exhausted and you were sound asleep by 6:30.

This morning, you crawled in the bed with me as I woke up and Daddy joined us and we just laid around, giving kisses and hugs, petting Estes, being goofy, and snuggling. It was all ruined after about half an hour when Estes farted and we all fled.

Today, after we went to see Gnomeo and Juliet and run errands with Daddy, you worked on clearing the gutters for the majority of the block so the water could flow to the drains. It was back breaking work, lifting those heavy pieces of ice, but you did it for nearly 2 hours. After a hot bath and some food, you've just been relaxing.

At the movies today, the showtime we wanted was sold out, so we were offered one 10-minutes later with the caveat that it was a special showing for kids with autism so it would be a little different experience. Before we went in, I explained what autism was by talking about your classmate Dakota and that the theater wouldn't be as dark and the movie not as loud as we are use to and that kids may be talking and walking around. You were great....and they were great.

I'm just so proud of the little person you are - your character, your wit, your love, your smarts.

Big hugs,

Mommy