A portrait of nonchalance.

Mike and I are sitting at the kitchen table the other night chatting about our day. Abby is in the office with pencil to paper, working on the great American Canadian novel or just printing her name over and over. It's hard to tell. Soon she appears at the doorway of the kitchen. Pencil in one hand, paper in the other as if we'd just interrupted her very important work.

"Mr. PrincipalOfAbby'sSchool gave me an award today." Abby says this to us casually as if she was asking for a glass of water.

"What? An award? For what?"

"For doing good in school!"

"Where did this happen? In your class?"

"No in the gym. And guess what Mom, even the grade ones were there."



Yes our little girl was named student of the month for April when they focused on reasoning and reflection. Now I'm not exactly sure how a four year old accomplishes that because I've tried to reason with her. Lord knows I've tried. And let me tell you it ain't easy some days. Also how much reflecting could she be doing? I joke, but I'm sure you know that Michael and I are in sanely proud. The certificate is up on the fridge right now, (there is also a copy that hangs on the "student of the month bulletin board" at the school), but we're planning on framing it to hang in her room. Yeah Abby!!