What's Really Important

The other day, I took Em to Kindergarten Orientation. (Sniff.)

Now, we all knew she was "ready" for Kindergarten, but I didn't know just how ready she actually was. She's always been a little-miss-smarty-pants, even correcting Owen on his homework (much to his dismay). She's also in the Kindergarten class at her Montessori and her teachers tell me she is "gifted" in the Language department. I'm not so sure about that one, though.

So, we get to the school and they whisk Em away for testing while I fill out mounds of paperwork, proving that, yes, she is my daughter, yes, she is of age, and yes, we really do live here. At one point, one of the teachers pulls me aside and tells me they had to mark Em down because she DIDN'T SPELL HER NAME CORRECTLY. Right. They said they asked her to spell it orally and to write it on paper. Both ways, she spelled it "E-m-e-r-s-o-n". Well, THAT IS HOW YOU SPELL HER NAME. Then the woman shows me her paperwork and they have her name spelled "E-m-m-e-r-s-o-n". OOOOOOOHHHH. THEY have it spelled wrong. So, they fix her score and go back about their testing.

When she is finished, they send Em out to me and we step up to the table where they give you your child's score. I sneak a peek at the table and see the little boy who was tested before her had gotten a 36. The teachers had gotten all excited and told his mom how well he had done and how he was SO ready for Kindergarten. The woman tells me that the children are scored on a scale from 1 to 50. 50 being the highest and I'm guessing 1 would be a newborn. They show me her score and its a 50. FIFTY. Like, the highest possible number. Then, they tell me, yes, she is ready for Kindergarten and away we go.

Now, in my head, I am freaking out a little, wondering how she could possibly NOT be bored next year, but outwardly, I tell Em she did a great job. We proceed to the ice cream shop as a special treat, because they just opened for the season and she's the first kid to go there! YAY! Then we head to the grocery store, mainly because I am out in public with only one of my kids, compared to the usual four, which almost NEVER ends well. Em asks if she can get some new nail polish and I agree to it, because, let's face it, she is a genius in my eyes today.

We get home and paint all of her fingers and toes the purpley-pink color and she is happy.

Jason gets home from work a few hours later and wants to hear ALL ABOUT her Kindergarten Orientation. Oddly, she doesn't have much to say about it, so he starts asking her questions, based on a phone conversation I had had with him earlier. SO he manages to SQUEEZE out of her that she had to write her name, draw a picture, and they gave her her very own book to keep.

Then she says, "The most important part is my new nail polish. Did you SEE my fingers and toes?!"