The first of the lasts

Last night was Noelle's final parent-teacher conference of her preschool career. I'll be honest, I was bit nostalgic, knowing that I wouldn't walk those halls again for her conference.  Dylan or I attended every single one offered because we were (okay, still are) neurotic, over-involved parents. Also, new to the parenting rodeo.  It was pretty much a formality as we knew from her February conference that she is more than ready for kindergarten. I won't lie, it's a nice feeling though being told what an awesome kid your child is.

She loves books and reading, always has.  What was kind of surprising is that she shows a very strong aptitude for math as both Dyl and my strengths lie more in the humanities (thanks Grandad and GiGi!).  She's always looking for and identifying patterns and has figured out grouping and sets.  (Okay, we'll also thank The Penguins of Madagascar video game for the assist here as well.) She continues to be a compassionate and caring child who is genuinely liked by the whole class.  This is big because we have been concerned about the effect of her being a naturally reserved child.  As a baby she would sit and observe what was going on around her, responding to and interacting with others but rarely joining in the play.

She found a way around that obstacle though: she discovered the magic power of dressing up.  From the age of 3 through practically 5, most days of the week she would show up to school in any one of a number of different  outfits: fairies, princesses, knights. It was cute and adorable and as long as it didn't disrupt the class we let her dress up. (This is also known as either being smarter than we thought and/or being lazy. To-MAY-to, to-MAH-to.)  She always took the costumes off though as soon as her teachers requested it.  She has worn costumes to school maybe a handful of times in the last six months so I thought that is was something that she had grown out of. Her teachers and I were reminiscing about some of her costumes when  we realized that she HAD outgrown it. Because she no longer needed the confidence boost of the make-believe to join with the others.  And she doesn't need it now.  She has developed the relationships and friendships with her classmates on her own; she no longer needs the crutch of the costume.

She still has her best friend in the whole world but they have both branched out and developed new friendships. She says that she will marry Nico when they are 27 and have a boy named Fred and a girl named Sally.  She will be a rock-star and he will be an engineer. At least I don't have to worry about meeting his parents...though I should probably let his parents know the plan. She has discovered her girly side and has a group of two other little girls who like to play dress up and style each other's hair. As my own hair styling skills are woefully limited to pony-tails, I fear that this will be a dream never realized. She also loves playing adventure and scavenger hunt games with her other best friends Sammy and Paige. At nap time when she isn't sleepy, she loves to brush her teachers' hair. I think that they are very brave for allowing this because she is certainly not gentle when she plays with mine. I'm so proud of her what with me being the poster child for sullen hostility and chilly reservation and all.

She is so good at identifying patterns and seeing groupings and sets.  She is able to figure out what letter words start with by sounding them out, well on her way to wrestling the insanity of the English language into submission. She is a true out-of-the-box thinker and a free spirit.  She loves art and colors and has a strong fundamental grasp of Spanish which I credit solely to Dora.  She knows her days of the week and what day it is in relation to others. She can identify what yesterday was and tomorrow will be; if you make a mistake, she will call you on it.  She is counting by twos, fives and tens and is a stringent rule-follower.  She is compassionate but has grown a strength to deal with adversity and challenges on her own instead of turning to teachers for help all the time.  She is strong and confident, funny and silly and so, so happy. We are so very proud and privileged to be her parents.

The world is your oyster Noelle-bear. Go get it.