They like him, they really do.

Yesterday was Brett's dreaded parent teacher conference. Over the years, conditioned by miserable experiences, I have come to regard these to be only slightly more enjoyable than stepping in fresh dog poo.

Picking Brett up every day from PreK, his teacher and I would chuckle endlessly at the funny, witty things he'd come up with. So, I was a little unprepared for when he went on to grad school, errr, I mean Kindergarten. I look back on that first meeting with his teacher and think I must have walked into that pow-wow and looked a bit like Cindy-Lou-Who, all doe eyed innocence. Only in this instance, the Grinch bitch slapped poor Cindy with a candy cane and told her she sucked as a mother.

Okay, it probably wasn't that bad, but this personality-devoid wench cared not at all for Brett's wit, intelligence, or charm. That didn't amount to squat if he couldn't tow the company line and make a proper upper and lower case alphabet. IMMEDIATELY. I mean really, hadn't I been working on this stuff since the doctor slapped him on the ass and dried him off? Mrs. Greenleaf wasn't at all kind about her assessment of Brett, and I came to regard the conferences as Make-Mommy-Want-to-Cry-Day.

Over the years, I've gotten much smarter when it comes to telling a good teacher from a bad one, as well as standing up for both Brett and I. By the first two weeks of school, I can tell right off which teachers are going to "get" Brett and which ones are not.

His current teacher is strict enough to not only get Brett to do what he needs to do, but also to amazingly care about how he does as well. The grading portion of the conference was short and sweet and it felt nothing short of fabulous to hear that he was doing so well.

Then she started to talk about Brett. About how witty and insightful he is. And, how she especially loves him in science class because he brings so much to the discussions. (Sweet! All that Discovery channel, finally paying off!)

She tells me that a few weeks ago they were studying the pyramids and Egypt, and to culminate this lesson she had found a really neat computer program that allowed you to "mummify a cartoon-like person". After assuring me unnecessarily that this wasn't macabre, she says that she had lined the very excited class up to head to the computer lab. She warned them that there was another class already in there, and that they'd have to be very quiet with their mummies to not disturb them.

Brett looked ominously at all of them and says "Get that? She wants us to be silent. DEAD silent! Get it? Mummies....dead silent!" And then burst in to laughter.

She tells me that the whole rest of the class either looked lost or rolled their eyes, but she and Brett were laughing so hard that they had to compose themselves to walk down the hall. He didn't seem to mind at all that only one other person had gotten his joke.

And neither did his mummy.