Bragging

It's really annoying when parents brag about their kids, but it's so hard not to some times. I don't mean to imply I had anything to do with the kids abilities or talents so it's not like I'm looking for compliments. But it is fun to see them being so good at things. So here it goes.

After swim class today (where Parker had to dive into 9 feet of water, touch the bottom and then swim to the wall), the teacher came up to me and said, "Um, excuse me. How old is he?" Six I said. He says, "He is an unbelievably strong swimmer." Yup, I say. "I've never seen anyone so young so good at that age. I was never like that," he adds. I smile. He continues, "We did some tests today and he did perfectly on all of them. It's quite amazing." Yes, he is pretty good. Did you hear that Parker, the teacher thinks you are pretty good? Parker stares off into space. And humble too!

And yesterday at Circus class, where Parker is only one of the three students and the only boy, the coach comes up to me after class and says, "Parker is really quite good at this and I would strongly consider trying out for Circus Development (which is the equivalent to Elizabeth's class if you want to run away and join the circus rather than a girls' gymnastics team.) I frowned and said, "NO!!!!! I can't be at the gym more hours each week. Please tell me you are kidding. I can't handle this. Can't my children just be average!"

Swim class ends tomorrow and Art Camp starts next week. If any of the counselors tell me he is amazing at art, I'm gonna punch someone.

Oh and speaking of Art and amazing kids, the other day in kindergarten camp, they read the story of Rainbow Fish...the fish that has shiny scales but no friends and then he gives away all but one of his scales to the other fish and has tons of friends. Stupid story, but kids like it. The girls read it tons of times at Sequoia. In fact, all the books they are reading at kindergarten camp we either own or read at Sequoia. But I digress. After they read Rainbow fish they each got a piece of paper with an outline of a fish and were instructed to draw a Rainbow fish. When Miranda showed me hers, I said, "Who did your scales?" She replied, "I did!" I said, "No, really, who did them?" She again said she did them. There was no way she did them as they were absolutely perfect. Each scale was colored in with a different color and each one was identical to the next one. The fish had patterns and it was amazing. So I went to look at Elizabeth's to see her scales. Hers was fine and it was obvious the scales were drawn in by the kid. It had a bunch of scales, but then you can tell she got bored or impatient or both and they all ran together and she didn't stay in the lines and it got a little messy. Totally typical for her age. Maybe even slightly advanced. But Miranda's was crazy good. I showed it to Michael and night and he said, "we've got to get this girl in art class!"

Elizabeth did a cart wheel on the beam yesterday. Um. A fucking cartwheel. Sure she fell off a few times, getting frustrated each time, but then she stuck it and it was quite a thing to watch.