It's amazing how kids show such a different, and sometimes, more mature side of themselves when they are away from their parents. Today, we went to Taylor's first conference of the year with Senorita Robles and Taylor went with us. From the moment we walked in the door, I could tell Taylor was proud to call the classroom hers. She was content, confident, and proud to show us around and most importantly, the cleanliness and organization of her desk! 

I feel like the conference zoomed by. Taylor's teacher was very impressed with her reading skills and paid us a compliment by saying we must be doing something right at home. Taylor is also doing really well in math and her teacher sent us home with a book to photocopy some additional exercises that they don't do in class. What really impressed me was the way she spoke about Taylor - perfect, kind, sweet, bright, and a good citizen in the class...always reminding others to be good and follow the rules so they can earn "table points" for a reward at the end of the week! That's our Taylor. Now how do we get her to act like that at home?? 

We decided to reward Taylor tonight and take her and AJ ice skating. I think it was probably the best reward we could have given her. After all, from the moment she saw the rink (the previous night), she endlessly talked about going and even told everyone at school that she planned to go as soon as possible. When we got there, she was in heaven! At first, she stayed by the wall, but it didn't take long for her to branch out and skate unassisted and even do some wobbly spins. It was so great to see her having fun and working hard to get better. AJ also had tons of fun. He loved the colored lights that were projected onto the ice and he used a little assist bar to skate the loop. He melted our hearts when a little four year old girl offered to skate with him. I have a feeling he stayed on the ice even longer because he had a little buddy to keep up with. It was very sweet. 

AJ has a conference in a couple of weeks as well as a birthday. It'll be so interesting to see what his teachers say about him. Stay tuned!