It's Here!

By: Smiley Face Now

I am of course talking about the last day of school.  Putting the kids on the bus for their last day brings a smile not just to their faces, but mine as well.  It means we survived another year, the kids got a little older and more able to take care of themselves. 

I love the way my little one has come out of here shell.  She has her little friends; she jokingly teases me as much as I jokingly pretend to not understand what she is trying to tell me.  She asserts herself now.  Here is an example.  She is a peanut, reedy and skinny but can swim all day.  A year ago, she would have been visibly scared if she ended up face to face with a dog – any dog, even those she knew all her life.  Well, we got dog and that skittishness seemed to evaporate into thin air.  I told her she is the boss of the dog and she ran with it.  So much so, that the other day we were at a graduation party where the family had a large Labrador Retriever.  The dog, a friendly, gentle and good natured brute of 100+ pounds, was in heaven because people were leaving half eaten plates of food all over the yard.  Now this house had a pool and my daughter was swimming.  She saw the dog going for a plate of unattended chicken wings, knew that dogs should not eat chicken bones because they splinter very easily, and got right out of the pool, walked up right up to the dog, sternly told him NO and took the wing from his mouth and the plate from his nose.  It all happened before I could even find a place to put my plate down.  The dog licked her hand and walked off and she jumped right back into the pool.  Amazing!

I am truly blessed; both of my daughters are thriving and make me proud.  School is a positive thing in their lives and they seem to take to it naturally.  I am happy they have a break and I’m sure we will do fun things together this summer.  I am also smiling because I get 10 more minutes to sleep because my wife and I don’t have to get up quite so early to get the kids ready and all of us out the door.  Hurray for summer vacation!