A note of thanks

Today was steeped in great blessings and answered prayers! As of 9:30am Miss A will officially be withdrawn from her current preschool by Thanksgiving and will start at a new (much better) pre-K program come last week of November/first week of December.

Miss A's current preschool has been OK. Seriously. It's been OK and nothing more than that. D and I have been about 50% satisfied in our experience there and according to us (both of us teachers) 50% is actually a failing grade!  In recent weeks we've witnessed incidents that have been just plain unprofessional of some of the staff.  Things we've also heard Miss A parroting (that we KNOW have not come from us) have also raised eyebrows on more than a few occasions and after a major incident last week? D and I were done.

As parents (who are also teachers) D and I strive to not be "those parents."  Time and time again we are willing to look at Miss A's teachers and be generous at giving them the benefit of the doubt.  For as generous as we've been though? We're pretty spent at this point.  Thankfully (and prayerfully) the Lord has provided an amazing new option that we didn't think we had. It's one that far exceeds the standards we had for her current place on top of the fact that it's cheaper monthly as well as annually! (This might seem to be unnecessary to note but there are two unrelated reasons why it's both.)

The other day when I was picking up Miss A, I was walking through the hallways of her preschool and really taking it in and trying to make sure that (truly) our decision to transfer her to another place would be as informed as possible.  Yes - they've done all of the "usual" stuff a preschool ought to do but we shouldn't be paying extra for something that is a given and that's definitely what we've been doing on the whole.

We know the transition might be hard for Miss A because she will be leaving her friends but it's going to be a good thing in the long run and especially with it happening when she's so young? She should adapt very well for the most part. And anyway, if you ask Miss A what SHE is thankful for, apparently she'll tell you this...

*sigh*

As shown, the things she is so grateful for are likely not going anywhere but wherever she goes! I'm just glad D and I both made the leaf!

How about some throwbacks?

I'm feeling a little nostalgic lately. Miss A is just growing up so fast and I can hardly believe she was this tiny at one point. These were all taken right around the time when she was turning only one year old and we still lived back in the apartment that we called our first family home.  Amazing how far we've come, how much we have changed, and how different life is for us in so many wonderful ways...

Never a dull moment

Hello, poor neglected blog. And hello, wonderfully FAITHFUL blog visitors who continue to stop by even though I've been doing everything but update this blog. *sigh*

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.

Gems from our little gem

Last night's bedtime prayer from Miss A went like this:

Dear God, thank you for the s'ghettis but not the red sauce because I don't like the red sauce. Amen. Thank you, Jesus.

And tonight Miss A has spent a significant amount of time tuning up her work bench.

Never a dull moment with this one, folks. Never a dull moment.

The Fall "Vegetable"

Last week was Homecoming week for the school where I teach. A number of activities had to be cancelled due to various reasons outside of the control of administration but one was kept - the Fall Festival. For this event, they turn some of our sports fields into a big community space into a bit of a small carnival set-up. I participate by helping to oversee the face-painting station that is run by the Art club.

This past Fall Festival was a very fun time. D had to help out coordinating a fellowship/community event for something he is involved in so Miss A came along with me to "shadow" me until D could join me later. I talked up the event number of days in advance and so by the time Saturday rolled around, Miss A was totally hyped up for the Fall "Vegetable." And I tried to get her to say festival instead of vegetable but it just wasn't working out so we just went with the Fall "Vegetable" the way she thought it was supposed to be.

Miss A had both of her cheeks painted (a heart and a flower) and also enjoyed rooting on some of the students who were playing powder puff -  she was even yelling, "Go TEAM!" at the appropriate times. Miss A's favorite thing for the day was the inflatable jumping thing. I have no pictures of that but it's probably better that way because 1) she wouldn't stay still long enough for me to take a decent picture with my phone and 2) she pitched a fit BOTH times when D and I told her to stop and that it was time to give someone else a turn. (It's so hard to be little sometimes. *sigh*) Anyway, here is a cute shot of her with her painted face and sitting at the powder puff game.