As I was sitting at my school computer today typing up some of the beautiful imagery my little ones had written in their winter poetry, I overheard the after school program tromp into the pod.  Usually I shut my door when they arrive so that I can work in a little bit of tranquility, but today I overheard a conversation between one of my kids and his friend.  It went something like this:

“I can spell Mrs. McCauley’s name.”

“You can?  It’s looong.”

I leaned in and heard my darling little guy list a string of letters.  I walked into the space where they were working and crouched down near him.  I once heard a student say that her eyes were brown like horses.  Well, this little guy has those kinds of eyes, deep brown in one light, golden brown in another.  Horse eyes for sure.  I told him I’d heard him spelling my name and I wondered if he could do it again.  He smiled the windowed smile that is the hallmark of first grade and started spelling.

“M-c-m-a-h-o-o-m-e-i.”  he pronounced.  “Did I get all of the letters?”  He looked up at me, his eyes beaming from all that effort.

“You got most of them.”  I patted his back

“Did I get enough?”

“Yes, honey, that’s definitely enough.”