8 year olds

I remember as a student teacher thinking that 3rd grade was the perfect grade to teach. For one thing you have first grade as learning to really read and write and begin math concepts beyond shapes. Then 2nd grade is sort of improving on the same. 3rd grade gets into reading real books and the whole writing process, cursive and multiplying and division which makes math so much more interesting. But the curriculum was only a small part of my reasoning. The main thing is that there is something very special about 8 year old children. They are past babyhood and beginning to show maturity and responsibility and their senses of humor skyrocket, their empathy is hightened, and they are just plain sweet. But they are not yet into being cool and all the preteen rebelling troubles.

I'd sort of forgotten about this while raising my own sweet children. But for quite some time now Tyra has been taking this wonderful way of coming up to give me hug when I need it or just because. She actually made her teacher cry on t.v. when they were filming the class because Mrs. Appleman is the county's Teacher of the Year. At the end Tyra went and gave her an impromptu hug that touched her so much the film ends with her tearing up.

Anyway, earlier this week I waited until everyone was starving (as usual) before trying to figure out dinner. I grabbed the latest Gourmet magazine and turned to the 10-minute-mains and immediately started on the chicken chili (highly recommended). I could see it was going to be a minimum of 45 minutes, yet I really wanted some cornbread to round it out. Tyra had made our Jiffy corn muffins before but the gourmet chili deserved better. I got out the Cooks Illustrated The Best Recipe, opened to the corn muffins, called in Tyra and asked if she'd make them. She said sure. Other than getting down flour from on top of the fridge and putting them in and out of the oven Tyra did every single step. And they were the best muffins I've ever had!

It still seems crazy to have a daughter old enough to just call in to help with dinner and have it be truly that much help!! I am getting very excited to go out to California with just Tyra this week for Ben and Jackie's wedding. We've already had a lot of fun just shopping for her accessories and getting things ready. Sitting in the mall on a break at the food court it seemed unreal that we could just be having a perfectly interesting conversation on the merits of fiction vs. non-fiction and what makes for good writing, a good story, etc.