Maria hosted Granmda Ionno, Mario and me at her Open House at school.  She had a clipboard with a checklist of everything she had to show us before the night was over.  We got to listen to other Fairy Tale about a big bad dog and a cat, watch her slide show on the blue morpho butterfly and learn a lot of desert facts.  She has accomplished a lot this year, and has especially excelled in her reading.  I can’t believe how well she is reading compared to the beginning of the year. 

She is a very good student and listens to her teacher.  She rarely ever gets in trouble, and when she does she feels horrible.  I think she is one heck of a student. While Maria was showing us her shoebox 3-D project (the blue morpho butterfly one that I helped with) she detailed how a girl in her class made fun of it.  She seemed really hurt by the girl’s comments, and for one minute, I felt like approaching the girl and giving her a piece of my mind.  I asked Maria if she told the girl how it made her feel and she told me she just walked away from her.  Maybe a better move in this instance since I can tell the girl is a piece of work. The mama bear comes out in me when I am told of those situations. 

Grandma Ionno tried to get up a few times to check on Grandpa but Maria begged her to stay and listen to her reading or watch her slide show.  She loves having family there to watch her.  After the event, we went to Panera for dinner.  Mario talked about inappropriate things and Maria talked about how it seems “like only yesterday that Mario’s hair was really thin.”  God love her – she cracks me up with her 60-year-old quips, and god love him, he is just insane.  When we came home tonight, she set all of her paperwork aside from school in order to show Jon when he returns home from out-of-town.  She was so heartbroken when she learned that Jon would not be able to attend her event but he made it up to her by promising her a double chocolate frozen drink at Starbuck’s.  He knows how to make up for his absence.