Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Of Friends and Fairies

Well, my baby is now 10 years old.  Within the next few years we'll need to have many "talks."  Last week was one of them. 

I was tipped off by grandma that it was time to have one of those talks.  Mikayla came home from school and said that her friends said that the tooth fairy is... get this... your parents!

Sitting close together on the couch later that evening, the talk went like this...

Me: Your grandma said you were talking about the tooth fairy today.  What were you saying?
Mikayla: My friends say that the tooth fairy is your parents.
Me: Well what do you think?

With a twinkle in her eyes and a smile across her lips to match the twinkle in her eyes, she took her index finger and gently tapped my nose as she said these words in a hushed voice...

"That YOU'RE a LIAR."

I laughed so hard that I cried and then continued the conversation.

Me: So why do you think parents would lie about something like that?
Mikayla:  So kids can have fun.
Me: Yep.  That's pretty much it.  Do you want to keep pretending so you can still get money for your teeth?

I'm not sure I ever got a straight answer on that one.  Guess we'll find out the next time she loses a tooth!

The Power of "I"

Inservices - you've got to love them.  Okay, not really.  One particularly "fun" inservice was about the power of an "incomplete" over a "zero" grade in the grade book.  Without going into the entire six hour inservice, let's just say that I'm giving myself an "I" for this years mini-goal resolution thing I had going on from January through June.  That's so much better than giving myself an "F," right?  I know... I made goals for July too, but I completely and utterly failed at even getting remotely close to accomplishing either of them!

So I now have an "incomplete."  You know what?  I can live with that.  In fact, I HAVE to live with that.  Every day I will wake up with stuff to do and I will go to bed with stuff to do.  I will never be done.  Until I die.  Then I will have a "completed."

Of course I will still make goals.  Goals help drive us.  In fact, I do have a new goal.  It's a big, scary, and exciting goal.  And that's all I'm saying for now.