A Ella in Preschool Story

Being a parent is pretty great overall, but last Wednesday was a real "proud parents" moment for Maylia and me.

I'll copy here an e-mail I sent our friend Catharine last week:

Oh Catharine, early this morning I was such the proud daddy... we brought Ella to school today and stayed again for 10-15 minutes to watch. The teacher announced "Deska budeme malovat!" (Today we will paint!). All the kids gathered around. May and I both caught it, but Ella didn't, so I got a little tinge in my stomach for her. Ella joins them and the teacher poured paints into jars. The teacher asks Ella what the colors are and helps her with the first one, starting with yellow, "zluta". Then as the teacher just pointed to green, red and blue, Ella said the czech words for each first. The teacher seemed genuinely excited and Maylia and I were besides ourselves. It was the coolest feeling. I couldn't have been happier if it were me saying the words first. This was the first time I've felt such a proud feeling. So cool.

Ella seems to be adapting well to school and school seems to be growing well on her.

-Jeff