And even more randomness

1. Eating an embarrassing amount of breakfast cereal for lunch. It's Maple Oatmeal Crispish sort of cereal and it's super crunchy and yummy and I'm a grownup so I'll eat as much of it as I damn well want. Just so you know.

2. Parents meeting with Eva's grade one teacher last night. All the parents trooped into the classroom and wedged ourselves into wee chairs in front of wee low tables, ready to find out WHAT TO EXPECT FOR THE YEAR.

Then her teacher came in.

Looking...FIFTEEN.

MAYBE.

I was fully expecting her to mention Twilight. Or start texting her mom.

But instead she was totally professional, intelligent, and well, quite fantastic.

We both liked her right off.

I think it's going to be a super year.

3. At one point during the evening's festivities, Catherine - the teacher - gave the parents some time to share homework strategies with one other.

I kind of figured it'd be things like, we do it at the same time every day.

Or, we ask her to do homework before she gets to play outside.

Suddenly, and with shocking speed, the mom next to me wheeled around and whipped out a rectangular plastic packet containing a tall stack of colour-coded flash cards, and slapped them out on the table with a triumphant thump.

Then the woman across from me did the same.

Colour-coded flash cards. Homemade and store-bought.

With pictures.

One parent described playing soccer with her kid, and he can only kick the ball back to her if he correctly spells a word first.

And diligently cutting words into wee bits of paper for the child to go through over breakfast.

Etienne and I just wound up sitting there quietly...we didn't know how to respond.

The colour-coded flashcards - in particular - left me feeling rather overwhelmed and uncreative.

Our strategy?

We ask Eva if she has homework.

If yes...she does it.

Listening to their stories...and all the time and effort they put into making it palatable for their kids..made me realize - once again - we're blessed with an awesome troll.

Two of them.

4. One more cool thing from parent-teacher night - each kid left their parents little cards that read, "Bonjour Maman et Papa. Je vous aime!" (Hello Mom and Dad. I love you!).

They all had little pictures drawn by the kids.

One kid had drawn a checkerboard.

Another, a car.

Eva's picture showed a bunch of children playing, including two little girls with rackets hitting a tennis ball, and an incredibly detailed little girl in the middle with braids.

But the best part: the swordfighting little girl in a wheelchair.

Oh yeah - have I mentioned that my troll is awesome?