I’m generally always proud of both of my boys, but today I am especially proud of Zackery.

We got his first quarter report card last week, and although in First Grade he doesn’t receive traditional letter grades, he pretty much got all A’s and B’s (in the form of S+ and S). Today, Will and I had our parent-teacher conference. His teacher kept saying how wonderful and sweet he is, and how she really enjoys having him in her class. She said he is above level in reading, and right where he needs to be with math. I actually thought it would have been opposite since he loves math and we struggle to get him to do his reading all the time (although when he does read I can tell he knows a lot more than he thinks he does – I guess that comes with self-confidence… we’ll work on that!), but either way I am still extremely proud of him!

He is a good student. A great student, and his teacher also said she wishes she could have more students like him in her class. WOW! Gosh that really puffed up my heart! Can you see my smile?

I don’t want to sound biased, but unfortunately I’m his Mother so that kind of comes as a given, with the territory. Zackery is a smart kid. He’s respectful, polite, well-mannered, a good learner, kind, thoughtful and loving. Of course, this isn’t always the case when he’s home with me and/or Will – but I would much rather him feel comfortable enough at home to be himself (you know, the occasional “acting up”) than be that way with other people (like at school or at someone else’s house). It’s nice to know I never have to worry about his behavior with other adults.

I feel good about our decisions of discipline, morals, respect, homework, school and everything else that comes along with being a good parent. Today’s school conference kind of solidified that for me a little more. It’s always nice when outside people compliment your child. Parenting is hard enough. Sometimes a little round-about affirmation and encouragement is all we need to know we’re doing right by our children.

So yes, I am extremely proud of Zackery! He has some hard choices to make at school, but he’s way more often than not making the right ones. Good job buddy! Keep it up! Mommy and Daddy are rooting for you and we love you more than you know (someday you’ll experience the same with your children…). xoxo