Well no wonder Keahi has a big ego

I'm always amazed at all the kids I see waving furiously at Keahi and shouting out to him from far away. Now that he's in third grade GATE and fourth grade math this year, the number of kids who know him has exploded. He's generally pretty aloof with them so I don't know quite what makes them all like him so much. But here's an example of this strange phenomenon.

I was walking behind Keahi as he rode his bike from school to the park beside it when two boys came up beside me and yelled out bye to him. They asked if I was his mom and then we chatted a bit about him. One was in his 2nd grade class and the other was in his 4th grade math class. The older boy said they were all amazed when they found out how young he was and how he always knows the answers and that he probably knew even more than their teacher. Then when we were at the park that boy asked Keahi to ride his bike for a bit. Afterwards, I overheard those same two boys talking about Keahi some more while Keahi was off riding his bike.
"How do you know Keahi? He's in MY class."
"But he comes to MY math class."
"I know him better than you do."
"No, you don't!"
"Do you know when his birthday is?"
"No. But he was born in 2004."
"Well, I know his birthday and I'm going to his party."

Wow. They were seriously arguing about who knew my kid better. Glad he didn't hear it.

Then a couple weeks later I had a chat with Keahi's primary teacher. We were all sick so had stayed home from church but I went for a bit to do my Sister Friendly calling in primary. She told me she was sad that Keahi had missed church because she had made a big deal about all the kids that had been baptized the day before. And then she let drop the bomb that I can't believe any teacher--or parent for that matter--would say. During her testimony she apparently asked the congregation who they thought was the smartest kid here and then informed them that it was Keahi Temple. I don't know what else she said after she told me that because I was just stunned and again grateful that Keahi missed that one. And hoping none of the kids there were listening to her or wouldn't hold it against Keahi. Really, I don't know what she was thinking saying that.

But that just hammered home just why Keahi thinks so well of himself. He missed both of these conversations but how many others has he heard. Yikes. The new word of the day around here is HUMILITY.