I Miss Eleventeen

Jena's teacher informed us that she's very smart. She even counted to 10 correctly all by herself.

Me: "Yes, she's been doing that for a while"

Teacher: "But she did it all by herself!"

Me: "Yes, she's been doing that for about a year."

Teacher: "All the way to 10!"

Me: "Uh huh"

See, one of the issues with Jena being shy, is that people tend to not believe me when I tell them that she does these things. Because even though she's been doing them for us for over a year, her teacher is happy just to hear her speak, so thinks this is like a whole new thing.

This... happens.

This... is probably going to continue to happen.

Whatever. She's shy. It's who she is. No biggie. To us anyway.

But back to eleventeen.

Jena has indeed been counting correctly to 10 for well over a year. Definitely before her 2nd birthday. She's been working on getting to 20 for a while.

"1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10..11..12..13..14...16...18...eleventeen...20 !!!"

Every. Single. Time.

No matter how many times we corrected her, said it for her, with her, showed her the numbers. She gets to 14, then takes off. And that elusive eleventeen, that so many of us never find, well my Jena knows right where it goes... right before TWENTY!

She always says TWENTY like it's a major accomplishment, a celebration. And it is. And every. single. time. we always laugh and celebrate. And when I correct her, and she listens.

But eleventeen persisted. Had for... at least six months or more.

Her new class at school is fantastic, as is her new teacher. And I know that even though she didn't seem to believe me, that the teacher sees Jena's potential. Because she's also told me that she's already letting her do exercises that the "big kids" (ie. 4 yr olds) do (one of the pluses of Montessori education). And Jena can do them just fine. So I know she does see her potential.

Which means that Jena will be counting to 20, correctly, in no time.

In fact, our precious eleventeen has already disappeared.

And I know once she correctly gets to 20 I will be one very proud momma, but I still, most definitely, will miss our eleventeen.