Proud mom!

I was glancing through my son's backpack last night and noticed a form that needed to be signed. It was the form for testing to get into the gifted and talented program for my 8 year old. I asked him about it and he said he didn't want to be in the gifted program because it would be a ton of extra work. I think he misunderstood that it was an honor to be asked to participate in the program. Not something that he should dread.

So....being the mom I am, I called to talk to the teacher about it and let her know that I really think he needs to be in it whether his test scores were high enough or not. To my surprise, she told me that he was going to qualify whether he tests high or not. She said he was one of the brightest kids in the class, but what was so special about him was that he was really well-rounded. I guess most kids who are smart really lack in social skills. Not my guy - with a mom that hasn't met a stranger, it would be extremely difficult for him to lack in any social skill whatsoever. That made me so proud of him. You see, he was injured at birth and paralyzed from the right shoulder down. This is a child that isn't even supposed to be able to move his arm, much less write with it. My son has turned out to be a go getter. He doesn't let the fact that his right arm doesn't straighten all the way get him down in the dumps. He embraces it. We call it his special arm or his lucky fin (Finding Nemo). We also live in a small town and all of these kids know him and play sports with him. They don't know him any other way.....and they really like him. But, the fact that he doesn't act shy and hide the fact that he's just a little different than anyone else makes me so full of pride. He's a great kid and I'm so proud to be his mom!