Spunky and Strong and Sassy At Times

So, there's this little girl who is spunky and strong and sassy at times.  And this little girl just happens to call me Mom.  And she's not so little anymore.  But she's always been spunky and and strong and sassy at times.

Of course, there are moments when it drives me a bit crazy, when she doesn't want to bend and stiffens her back to stand her ground.  When her spirit flies right out of her, flaring up, causing smoke and nearly an emotional nuclear melt down.

But sometimes, that little girl who is spunky and strong and sassy at times makes me so full of joy and pride.  Her grit sometimes gets lost among her peers because I think it's harder to be strong when you are with those whom you want to impress.  But I got to watch her last week, as she took a high school boy to task and she definitely didn't look lost.  This poor high school boy, who really doesn't know my daughter, casually talked to her at one point during the soccer game we were watching.  Then about half an hour later, he was sitting beside us and made a somewhat snide comment about another high school student, who just happens to be the sister of one of my daughter's classmates.  Conleigh wanted to know who this boy was talking about so I told her.  To which she said with more than a hint of disgust in her voice that saying that wasn't very nice.  He was taken back a bit but didn't say too much.  She then asked who this boy was so I told her his name and mentioned that he should have gone out for soccer (since he could have played on D's team) but that instead he went out for track.  The boy sheepishly admitted he wasn't out for track anymore.  (In other words, he had quit.)  The original comment that Conleigh thought was rude centered around this boy hearing the girl's name called during the starting line up of a soccer game.  Imagine my surprise when Conleigh heard that this boy had quit track, to hear Conleigh very matter of factly pipe up, "Well at least her name is being called!"

I'm not one for encouraging my kids to embrace being confrontational.  But for this little girl who is spunky and strong and sassy at times, I so appreciated that she was brave enough to look at a high school boy and tell him that he was wrong.  Yes, she is most definitely spunky and strong and sassy at times.