However

We leave for the airport in a couple hours. My students have a substitute today, which is not an ideal scenario during the first week of school. I have a sneaky feeling they'll behave themselves, though. They're always a bit more timid week one.

I wonder what Lyla will be like in school. I hope her personality happens to align with the way a school day unfolds. Some kids can't stand the desk time, the bells, the institutional feel of it, and some kids don't care. I hope Lyla doesn't care. It'll be easier for all of us.

I also hope she'll be a bit of a trouble maker. Not gross insubordination or any major infractions, but occasionally too talkative, occasionally goofy and unfocused. At parent-teacher conferences, I don't want to hear "If she would only speak up more in class..." I'd prefer the teacher to smile, shake his head, and say he's never quite sure what Lyla will say next.

That all sounds fine, but it's not the truth, not really. The truth is that I'll take her however she turns out.