Business has really been booming for me on the photography side of things and so if I've not been occupied with teaching, I'm actively booking shoots, shooting sessions, culling and editing images, or packaging and delivering things to clients. It's been so much work juggling things but at the same time, it's been an amazing joy and blessing as well. I have worked so hard for the past decade now and my career as a professional photographer is really paying off in dividends to the point where my reputation and experience is absolutely the major contributor for the demand of my work. It's so nice to know and be able to prove that I'm a seasoned and very well experienced professional in a field that is just about bursting at the seams with folks who have only just picked up a camera. Nothing against some of the greenhorns that are out there as I'm actually a huge fan of young and fresh talent being in the field of art education but just... I don't know. It's nice not to be out there in the gauntlet of trying to carve out a niche for myself anymore. It's nice to not have to fight for work. It's nice to have it be concretely validated (by the good Lord above) that this is indeed what I'm supposed to be doing with my life as He continues to provide for it to happen.
Moving on, I've also been trying to throw myself into being a good mom to an incredibly busy and increasingly inquisitive Miss A. Her new favorite thing is to ask, "Why not?" I'm not sure where this came from over the traditional "Why?" but these days, Miss A is constantly challenging us to explain and justify things more fully. We are really on our toes constantly and, I can't lie, it's fun to watch her sponge up as much information as she can get.
This morning she wanted to put together puzzles and we spent almost an hour doing three different ones. These same puzzles presented quite a challenge no less than three months ago but now? She was able to do them all with very little assistance from me. She's looking at the pieces and employing some great logical reasoning and finding some terrific solutions just like that.
We're also working with her on independent play. Since she's our only little love, she's used to getting an endless amount of playtime at any given time from at least one of us. We have never been interested in shorting her of any attention but we also know that this could create issues by undermining the natural independence that she could otherwise have. For this reason, we are actively alternating play time with alone time. And I'm happy to say that sometimes she can really throw herself down on the floor in protest when play time ends but her imagination and ability to entertain herself is really blossoming. Most recently she's started doing a lot of pretend play. Her latest favorite has been to use the bathroom sink cabinet as a van-car, a hide-n-seek (her words, not ours), or a house for her "shildrens." She has logged hours at this point getting in and out of the cabinet and it's so much fun to watch. Can you see the tiny little fingers at the top of the cabinet? She's in there just hanging out.
Earlier today I was inspired by an episode of Kipper on Sprout and I got out some air dry clay for her to play with. (Being an art teacher has such perks! I love having a very well stocked home studio that can always supply something that can be used for creating.) We played with the clay for a good hour and though it was messy and ended up getting in her hair (not soon after we gave up on trying to keep it off of her shirt), it was so fun watching Miss A get so into it and really make that lump of clay into a cat, a plane, a car, a bird, and finally (with my help) a bowl.
I don't consider myself very naturally maternal. Motherhood really does not come naturally to me at all and despite some people's assumptions of me, I really have to work hard and really think about what I should do at any given time to be a mom much less a decent one. Still, the one thing I do very well and naturally is to just sit at Miss A and marvel at what a wonderful gift she is to have in this life. Whether she's trying to figure out the world, trying to make it into something that only SHE understands, or making a complete mess in it, I absolutely adore her. And no matter how much work I'm ever so blessed to have, I know one of my greatest blessings with always be that which is Miss A.
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