A note dear Readers,  Miss Magpie was so excited about her debut post last week and mulled and stewed for this week  with a few starts and stops with ideas. This weekend was filed with activities for her, between parties church and Girl Scouts but more to the point, in the pool on Saturday Mr. C, and her and a friend were goofing around lo and behold Mr. C  (5 yo) kicked our Miss Magpie square in the eye-ball accidentally resulting in one helluva a shiner to the extent we were worried for a while of concussion.  No concussion, ripping headache and after a full  day, she asked me to tall you all that she appreciates your reading and commenting last week,she will answer soon  – she hopes you understand and  that her mother Lizzie will be filling in this week.  and she is sure that Lizzie will be able to keep you entertained.    – 

I am thinking concussion for sure..     🙄  

ItJust so happens that out of the draft box I found the perfect substitute piece for this week.  I wrote it last Spring after the last parent teacher conference before the end of school.  And give it to you unchanged except the poetry is not included as that is up to her to add.  She has said as soon as the colors of her black eye are cool enough, she will let me take a picture and post it.  

I heard that she told the Pastor at church this morning  “You should see the other Guy” 

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Being Mother to a Gaggle of children, it has been my experience that it is too easy to fall into the group mentality.  In other words view them as a collective whole, a herd if you will, a gaggle, rather than as individuals each with their own unique and lovely qualities.

That;s not to say that I don;t recognize the special things in each of my children but on a day-to-day basis, and to get through the things in life we must do, what is good for the goose is good for the gander, To put it very simply.  And usually what is best for Mom is lumping,, they all take theirs, and their siblings lumps.  It’s not right or fair, but it;s life.

Every once in a while, one of my children shines, with a light so bright, that not only do I stop and take special notice of it, I am filled with gratitude to have a moment given to me such as that,  It is, a gift,

Yesterday, I was given one of these precious, special moments and I would be remiss, to not honor it.

My 8 yo daughter, The Changeling,  We call her that because of her free spirit and her impishness.  She is of the other people, a sprite, fairy, elf… and we often tease her about whether she has heard from them,  I have probably told this story before but once she and her little brother were drawing with colored chalk on my parents driveway.  All sorts of strange symbols and neat things and before my dad or I (we are the ones that tease the most) could even comment, she asked if I had seem them and then told me it was a message to her people and she hoped they got it.

I also sometimes call her Magpie because she likes shiny things and when she was small she collected them, with no mind of whose they were or of any value other than how pretty they were. More times than I can count if I was missing a piece of jewelry or anything really that could shine, she would have it stashed away in amongst a pile of other things that had appealed to her.  I quickly learned that before I panicked and tore the house apart looking for my rings, or other trinkets, to simply ask her.

She’s incredibly amazingly bright.  Stubborn and strong,  An excellent sense of humor for an 8yo, which  lends to the belief she will be a force to reckoned with in a battle of wits as she grows older.  She loves to read, loves to learn, is well liked by her peers and loved by the adults that have taught and guided her.

She also has one hell of a temper and can lay a guilt trip without batting an eye.  Always moving. always talking, a bundle of pure bright energy.  Do not ask this girl a question if you don;t have at least 5 minutes to hear the answer.

Yesterday were parent teacher conferences, and this time around they were what they refer to as student led.  Meaning the child shows you what they have been doing and reports on their progress, while the teacher is there simply to supervise.  These types of conferences have never been my favorite,  My 11 yo Doodle struggled through them so much it was painful, and then when we got to hers, and she was always doing well, top of the class, she never got quite the attention she deserved.

Until yesterday.  And I saw my child in a new light, a delightful light that I had not realized was part of her specialness yet.  One of the parts of the conference was sharing their writing… it was after the math and reading.  Did you know they are teaching fractions in second grade? Oh let me not get started on that bit of ridiculousness,

They had poetry books, bound and laminated and illustrated and it was this that opened the door into another part of my daughter.  She began to read and I was taken aback.  At first I asked if these were fill  in the blanks, or they were given some other type of props and when she said no, just a topic, I had to pick my jaw up off the ground.  Maybe it’s mom goggles, but I don;t think so.

At the end of the conference, walking to the car, I told her how proud I was of her and asked if I could share some of her poetry on my blog.  She was ecstatic and blurted, bounced, bubbled, with hands clapping.

Which I took to mean yes….

Before I do though, she only had one mark against her in the whole conference, for following class rules.  When questioned she told me, with an impish grin, she had a little problem with talking in class… Yes, I could picture that.

I couldn’t be more proud.

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