Our little baby is all growds up

I can't believe my little girl is starting 4th grade today. We took a trip to her school last week for an open house where she got to say hi to some friends, and more importantly meet her teacher. On the way to the school I asked her if there were any teachers that she hoped that she didn't for the year. I was surprised to hear her say no.

I can remember every year going to the school's front doors toward the end of the summer with anticipation and sometimes trepidation to find out who would be my teacher for the year. It seems like every year there was at least one teacher with a bad reputation for one reason or another. There were the teachers that were very strict. The teachers that gave swats. Remember the days of swats and the stories of the infamous  paddle with holes in it? The mythical aerodynamic brute of a paddle that would leave you with a bruised butt and tears in your eyes. There were the teachers that favored a group of students: girls, boys, jocks, cheerleaders. And the teachers that had some sort of body odor issue. There was the story of the class of students leaving a bottle of mouthwash for a teacher with a particularly serious case of bad breath. Good times.

This year she gets to start the year with a curse and what I see as opportunity. She broke her thumb a couple days ago and will be going to school today with a cast. This is ice breaking gold as I told her on the phone. She gets to start the school year with a story; possibly a fantastic one. My advice was to spin the story to her advantage. She fell on her bike while riding down a hill. Or did she fall off her bike while finishing a world record setting jump over 4 of her neighborhood friends that were lying on the ground side by side? Or did she race into the street on her bike to save a kitten from getting run over by a car leaning over cowboy style to scoop the kitten out of the way just in the nick of time injuring her thumb in the process?

She didn't seem to want to use any of my fantastic ideas. Her loss.

Aiden through the years. I prefer to watch it in reverse and see her get younger and less grown up looking. You're freaking me out girl.