At Kirsten's band concert on Thursday night, I met the boy she is currently chasing. He looks like a blonde Ashton Kutcher, very cute. He actually called to Kirsten from down the hallway as we were leaving, to introduce her to his mom. Kirsten's so sarcastic and just generally larger than life, I contrast how I was at that age and I feel very unworldly. She's got more self-confidence right now than I had at 22. I swear. In this I think she definitely takes after her father.

Rachel's report card said that she "demonstrates empathy" towards the kids in her class. Ian's report card praised his imagination, and Kirsten's mentioned her volunteer work in the school, she likes to help with the kindergarten kids, and she's in demand as a sorter of hot lunch orders. I commented on these things to them, and told Kirsten that it didn't matter a bit that she got a C in Personal Planning, whatever the hell that is. She comes home with marks that she's agonizing about, last term she got a B in Language Arts and expected me to be furious and I pretty much said, "Who cares, you read a lot". When she got her course selections for next year (she's going to high school, believe it or not) she told me she was signing up for basic English, and I said, "Whatever you want". I wondered why she wasn't trying for Honours English, but I figured if I said anything she'd go back to school saying "My mom's MAKING me take Honours English" and I didn't want that. Just before the form was due to be handed in, she came up behind me while I was packing my lunch and said, "I talked to Mrs. Hammond and she says I can try for Honours English", and I said, "Sounds good to me."