Friday braggy blog hop

So, tonight I googled (love how that's accepted as a verb now) "Friday blog hops". I wanted to find the hop of someone I am not already following. And I'm following a lot of blogs. I love to read them nearly as much as I LOVE to write mine (and love you for following)!

Anyway, I came upon this one from Life with the Lebedas and she does themed blog hops. I found this to be quite fun AND timely, since the theme this week is Brag About It. And, since parent-teacher conferences were yesterday, I have plenty to brag about!

My daughters ROCK! Yes, they are only 4 and 5, but still. A mommy can be proud. My first-born baby girl is in Kindergarten and her teacher clearly adores her. She raved about her lovely personality and how well she was doing. She's ready to read, so we have our first take home book. She is reading when she wants to. In fact, at our lunch date yesterday she read, "fajita" and "grill". I helped her with the Spanish "j" sound, of course. The thing that most pleased me, however, was this: Each day the class has a 'special' student who tells the rest of the class about themselves. Then, all of the students draw a picture of that person and the drawings go into a little book that the child gets to bring home. It's really sweet! Well, my little darling has demonstrated that she really listens to what each person is saying because she always incorporates what the child says they love to do. So, if Jill (made-up name) likes to play soccer, then my girl draws her playing soccer! She's the only one who consistently does this. That made me SO proud. Why? Because it shows that she cares about people. That she notices what other people care about and that is exactly what makes a person feel special and worthwhile. I don't often see this with us at home, so to hear that from her teacher made me so happy. That's the kind of person I want to raise!

Onward to our second conference of the afternoon with our second daughter's teacher. My sweet Pumpkin is one of a kind. She is smart and funny and willful. Examples from her teachers include her counting ability: she counted to 49 and then got stuck (20 is the goal for her age). She uses her words: She told the para pro one day, "My nose is extremely stuffy." And she draws with the detail of a much older child. Sometimes, during free choice, she seems a little unsure of what to do. I suggested that she might be bored and I could almost see the lights go on in her teachers heads. They promise to encourage her and challenge her when she seems to need it. She reads at the same level as her sister, is much more focused, can do 16 to 24 piece puzzles on her own and isn't afraid to tell you "No!"

And, since this is a brag post, I should mention how well-behaved the boy was while we dragged him along to 30-minutes of conferences while stuck in his stroller. He was great! And he went nuts when we let him loose at home. I'm starting to decipher words now. I was thinking he wasn't talking, but I think I'm just not paying attention. Today I distinctly heard the following words and/or phrases, "What's that?"; "Papa"; "Kitty-cat"; and "car". Papa tells me that in French he says, "Regard" (look) and "Encore" (more). That's all I can remember, but that's not bad for 14-months! I have a touch of mommy-guilt with him because I don't spend the time reading with him and playing with him like I did his sisters. DD1 spoke at least a dozen words clearly by this age.

So, that's my brag for the day. I'm a very proud mommy. Damn, I love my kids! Not just because of their incredible intelligence, but because they are turning out to be truly lovely people and that matters the most to me.

Link up and brag!!!