She's such a GOOD girl.
Each day after school when my Ellers hops into our car I always ask her to tell me how her day at school was by her facial expression. She turns her head around and then back to me and the majority of days she flashes me the world's largest smile. It's pretty cute. If she's had a hard day she'll turn her head around with a half smile or some tears and then we can talk about it. My heart is happy that most days her smile is big and bright.
I went to Elle's 2nd grade parent-teacher conference this past Friday morning. The teacher went through all of her academic progress which is right on track. She's a smart girl and works hard so I was happy to see that her class work reflected that. Her teacher then looked me in the eyes and told me what a good, GOOD, sweet girl Elle is. I'm sure she tells most of the parents this but it took me quite by surprise. I know she's kind and sweet but you never know what happens when they leave you. My emotions really caught me by surprise. The more she talked about my Elle's sweet personality the more my eyes started to well up with tears. I kept thinking, "oh no, don't do this amy...this is embarrassing!!!" but it was to no avail. The tears came. She went on and on about how Elle treats the other children in the class and how kind and caring and helpful she is. To me this is SO much more of importance than any of the other things on that report card.
As a mom I work so much with my girls and sometimes I just feel like it's going in one ear and out the other with them. And somedays I feel like I'm a completely lousy mom. There are so many ups and downs on this "mom roller coaster". I think that was what made me cry - all of the TIME and TALKS I have with them are paying off even just a little bit. You do your best with them and then you push them out into the world and hope for the best. It's scary and rewarding and somedays heartbreaking all at the same time.
Each day as Elle is walking down the driveway and hopping into Jon's car to go to school I give her a hug and say, "Work Hard AND...."
She then has to finish the quote.
She always, smiles and says
"...BE NICE".
I love my sweet Elle. I'm glad she's mine.
