First Day of Third Grade -- Check!

If ever there was a child who very desperately needed summer to end so she could return to the land of school, it's this one.

HOOBOY was Mila ready to go back. Summer camp was fun and all of that, but she needs more people. Give that kid all of the people. Can she have hundreds of classmates? Because she would like hundreds of classmates, please and thank you.

So. Third grade.

No, that's not a typo. Somehow we all blinked and that tiny baby is in third grade.

Third grade.

Mila makes her own lunch every day. She gets herself dressed all by herself each morning. She even remembers to brush her teeth without being told. But can she spell "first?" Of course not. She would have to care about those things called rules and she most definitely doesn't care about rules. Spelling and grammar are nothing but a system of rules, so I expect she'll start working within them in about ... never. She's never going to do it.

She loves math, though. Solving problems is sort of a super power, so math aligns with her general goals. While there are rules carefully woven through the math world, Mila can get to an answer without following any of them (uh, she doesn't "new math" - she has her very own way of solving literally everything, which leads to her getting points taken off, but she consistently has the correct result so I'm probably eventually going to have to get in a fight with her teacher about that whole "show your work thing"). It's kind of interesting to watch her work out her results because the path she takes makes sense to literally only her. But it works. So.

Besides math and making new friends, Mila's main concerns for third grade are that she better get to learn about different kinds of clouds FINALLY and she is super looking forward to having swimming classes. I'm super looking forward to dripping wet swimsuits being crammed in her backpack for weeks on end.

The child. She is predictable.

And I predict she'll have a really good year.