"You should be very proud"... and we are, but we're so much more, too.

I had Anna's end of year teacher conference today. I was seven minutes late. While that might not seem like a lot in the grand scheme of things, the appointment was only for 15 minutes, making me way past tardy.

Out of breath and trailing a grumpy 1-year-old boy, I burst into the room. Anna's teacher is ever graceful and calm, which made me feel even more flustered and unkempt. " Sorry, I'm late... here, Jack, you want your juice? Please? Here, take my purse, go nuts, have at it... shhh... shhh...".

Patiently, the teacher waited another three minutes while I tried to settle my son. In all, that left us five minutes for the conference until the next parent arrived (probably on time and with their hair smoothly styled).

Turns out, five minutes is exactly what you need when all that needs to be said is, "She's amazing. You should be so proud".

Anna is smart, Anna is ahead of her peer group, Anna is a wonderful writer with a vivid imagination and grasp of language, Anna is clever and delights in problem solving, Anna asks questions and looks for better answers, Anna is curious and self-motivated. Anna is a delight.

Smiling and nodding, I glanced briefly at her test scores and work samples, all the while keeping an eye on Jack. He'd stealthily made his way over to a supply shelf and was re-arranging water bottles and tissue boxes. With a pleasant thank you for all her work with Anna over the year, I gathered up the papers, roughly re-stacked the shelves and scooted Jack out the door, back to the car we'd only moments ago come running from.

Now maybe it sounds like my distraction meant I wasn't impressed by Anna's teacher's assessment. That's not the case. I am SO proud of Anna, immensely proud to the point of my heart bursting sometimes when I see her in action. But what focuses my attention isn't really test scores and worksheets from her classroom. What thrills me is that she epitomizes the idea of  "do what you love, love what you do". Even better, she's really GOOD at what she loves to do. Put those two together and I know my daughter is happy.

She can read all the books she wants. What she doesn't understand, she'll look up. When what she learns gives her an idea, she'll think of ways to experiment with it and make a game about it. Then maybe she'll sit down later, to relax, and write a story about it. And on and on and on. The whole time she's learning and impressing teachers and acing tests... she's happy.

I'm so proud of what she can do with that little head of hers, but mostly I'm just happy that she loves to do all those things in the first place. Now I've just got to think of some projects to keep up with her this summer. Any ideas?