Report cards came out last week and Annalise did FANTASTIC!!!! She got straight E's (which are A's when you get to third grade). She's above level in reading and she is right where she needs to be in everything else. She made it to Principal's Honor Roll which means she got perfect grades AND her citizenship was excellent. John and I went to the awards ceremony and my favorite thing to see was that she was no longer "the new kid." It is clear to me that she's made friends, that she has plenty of fun, and that she feels completely comfortable in her new school.
I wrote an entry when she was about 2 years old that was called Angelface/Sassypants. I think about that one quite often because it still fits her in every way. She's the sweetest little girl I have ever known, but she's clearly never going to be in danger of becoming a wall flower! Her confidence and creativity amaze me every day and I'm often left wondering if that's really my kid! One of my favorite quotes recently is about me. When she says her prayers, she always adds "Thank you for my (insert adjective) Mommy!" It's my favorite part of the day to see what she comes up with. The other evening, she thanked God for "this compassionate yet stubborn Mom of mine" and I couldn't help but laugh right out loud! When I asked what prompted that, she explained that I'm very kind and compassionate, which is good, but that I can be very stubborn when I've set my mind on "No" which she does not like.
Our girl is not only book smart. She's pretty street smart too! She's got that going for her, but don't think for a moment that she's perfect because all you need to do is look at her room to see that she's far from that. She's a bit of a slob...to put it lightly. We finally got her new room painted and her new bed put in there, which required a heavy dose of shoveling her "stuff" from side to side to make room. We cleaned the whole room up and told her to keep it that way. Much to my irritation, it took exactly one day to turn back into a complete disaster and I was at the end of my rope. Yelling was not working so John decided to try and outsmart her. We got it cleaned up again the way I like it and he told her, "I bet you can't keep your room this clean for three days!" She said, "Bring it on!" He bet her a dollar that she could not keep it neat (exactly as clean as it started) through that Thursday night. Well, she won her dollar and John decided to see how far he could take it. He said, "I'll bet you $2 that you can't keep it that way for a whole week..." She said, "Nope. Forget it. Not worth $2." Her room is again a mess.
Like I said, the girl is smart!
