teachers' pet

I was always the teachers' pet growing up. I showed up early to school so I  could help grade papers. I stayed late so I could clean up. I always raised my hand in class and even sat on the twelve member 'jury' in 9th grade (the gifted kids - well we thought we were- who always had an answer to everything).

And so it is no wonder that Kiley has followed in my footsteps.

Err...it might be a little different. You see, her 'teacher' is her big brother. But she's definately a fast learner.

As I type this, they are up in their room, supposed to be going to bed, but Jaxon is teaching her the phoenetics of Gangnam Style. "Kiley, say 'Gang', okay say 'nam'. Now say 'sty', and 'l'. I just sat there laughing as she obediently repeated each symbol back to him. And now I have two little Psy's up there singing Gangnam Style.

Woa Woa Woa.

I suppose she has learned some good things form Jaxon too. How to count and sing her ABC's. How to eat fruit rollups and gushers. How to check out books at the library and carry them in her backpack. How to cut with scissors and put stickers on everything. How to sing and dance and work a microphone.

She's learned to always get the 'last whatever' because it doesn't matter what it is, as long as you got the last one before the other one.

She's also learned to share and hug and love each other. Just tonight, I was quite impressed as they were sharing their ice cream, giving each other bites. For some reason Kiley doesn't like to share with me though- she has the idea that I'm going to eat it all!

She has also seemed to grow a strong sense of independence overnight. I'm quite certain she has learned some of this from Jaxon, though it's probably her developmental stage right now too (like I have any idea- are you kidding? who has time to read parenting books these days!).

Tonight when we were at Lookout Ridge, Kiley just took off climbing after Jaxon and going down the slides. I felt this much closer to those parents who sit at the tables and let their kids run wild while they sip their lattes and read their iPads. I don't want to be them yet. But I felt like they were calling me, saying, 'Relax. Just sit and enjoy yourself. Your kids are fine.' I digress though as that is a whole other blog post...

At any rate, I am astonished at the rapid rate at which Kiley is learning. Scott and I have commented in the past couple weeks several times that she's like a little person. She has so many opinions. SO MANY. And she forms complete sentences that have complicated thought processes (I think) for a two year old. She's manipulative and smart. Funny - oh so funny. And she is a caretaker. She's just really sweet and when she looks at you, sometimes your heart just melts.

And for these reasons and so many more, I am sure she will have no problem settling in to become a teachers' pet...