Emma brought home a picture of a keypad the other day.

It was tucked away in her homework folder, and she told me that she needed to take it out and practice, practice, practice typing in her student ID number.  This was her ticket to the free breakfast that all the kids at her school are treated to every day.  (Thank you, urban school district.)

So, we’ve been practicing, practicing, practicing until I was confident that she had it memorized and could input it with no trouble.

I asked her yesterday how it was going.  Was she able to remember the number?  Was she able to punch it in?  Was she able to get the breakfast that makes getting up early for school worth it?

“You know what happened, Mommy?  There was a LONG line behind me. And I kept punching in my number… and it wouldn’t work!  One, two, THREE times!  And it wouldn’t work!”

She didn’t seem stressed at all about that long line or about the number not working.  Because she’s Emma.  And Emma?  Doesn’t get stressed.  (Ana, meanwhile, would have been freaking out.)

“And THEEEEENNNN,” she yelled, “I figured it out!”  And she recited her number to me… backwards.  Before I could even point out her mistake, she laughed and said, “It was aaaaalllll CUH-RAZY!  Ha, ha, ha!  SOOOOO SILLY OF ME!”

I had to laugh, too.  Even after all these weeks of sitting through homework with this sweet girl, seeing that it’s really not her just “being silly,” knowing that we’ve probably got a cuh-razy road ahead of us… well, it’s hard not to smile when she’s able to see such humor in it.

Thankful for her and the great attitude she encourages me to have…