the little bee that could

It is spelling week at the kids' school.

Yesterday, each of the six 2nd grade classes had a spelling bee to determine who would represent each class. A remarkable thing happened. Belac was runner-up for his class! There are 21 kids in his class and it came down to Belac and another little boy. There were apparently 5 or 6 rounds with just the two of them before Belac missed a word. His aide told me that there was no extra prompting involved nor any adult physically at Belac's side, so it was just Belac and another boy standing. There were other teachers watching and apparently, at this point, they raised eyebrows at each other, wondering if Belac - of all kids - was going to end up representing the class.

I know it's just spelling and no one needs to spell anymore these days. And given Belac's acute memory for dates, letters and all that is concrete, his spelling ability does not exactly surprise me. But upon hearing a report like this, I have no choice but to recognize that he's come such a long, long way.  I would have been content to know that Belac was simply up on stage by himself, like the rest of the kids, and that he made it through a few rounds. But to find out that Belac had held his own, enough to be one of the last kids remaining, was something I never dared to imagine. This kid never ceases to both amaze me and drive me crazy. I thank my lucky stars!

PS - I went to pick up, only to have a mom call me from across the playground. She had heard about Belac's performance at the spelling bee. Told me her son had been studying all week for the spelling bee and when he was eliminated, apparently was jumping up and down and rooting for Belac. (I didn't say, but I had not known there was going to be a spelling bee and so Belac did not study.) The mom asked Matt, is Belac really good at spelling? Apparently Matt responded, he's amazing at spelling. I really like this mom a lot and we've had her son over plenty of times to play while we've sat with tea. They have never had Belac over, which over time I have found curious. Maybe there is a perfectly good reason, I'd never in a million years ask, but I wonder if this changes anything.