Redemption

Well, I had Spencer's conference this morning. Nothing surprising, really. The main thing I want him to get out of this year are confidence in his abilities, understanding that perfection is not necessary (especially on the first attempt), and the knowledge that kindergarten is going to be FUN. I haven't had a child with kindergarten anxiety before. In fact, I have pooh-poohed the whole idea of 5 year olds regressing and being reluctant to cross that threshold into the world of big kids; I hereby humbly apologize and beg forgiveness of all those parents whose children have gone through this.

He is nervous about kindergarten. So the teachers know this and can talk it up for the rest of the year. Great. Other than that, he is doing fine. No worries. And all guilt for missing the conference (well, most of the guilt, anyway) is gone. Yay.

And this morning I handed Garrett a folder filled with hand-colored pictures of lungs, kidneys, gall bladders, brains, and various other organs (the heart was complete with veins and arteries colored blue and red, with arrows indicating the flow of blood ... truly lovely). I am SO glad that project is over. And somehow the sheer amount of time and effort involved in creating those pictures makes me feel like I've made up for the other thing. Kind of like, "Okay, I totally screwed up on the conference thing. But look, I spent 8 hours making this lovely picture of a liver. Have you ever seen such a gorgeous liver? Look at the shading, the depth of color ... honestly, doesn't that liver make up for the fact that I am otherwise a slug of a parent? Yes, I thought so. Thank you."

My mind works in mysterious ways. But mostly, it's okay. We all have our issues, right? Right? Okay, well maybe it's just me. But I'm good with that.