Lovey

JP fell asleep, for the first time since infancy, without his Lovey.

I can't believe it.





Backstory - We have a spare Lovey, an exact duplicate. Sometimes, JP finds both of them and sleeps with both snuggled close to his face. He likes to rub them on his nose. He has to take it to school and to Monger's house. He and Monger have made a 10:00 pm trip to Walmart to try to find a suitable replacement when we've accidentally forgotten to pack Lovey. He used is for naptime, bedtime, and other time we let him. I can visibly see him relax when he gets his hands, or rather face, on Lovey. Tonight, he went to bed without so much as even asking for it. My boy is growing up.

So... it's been a good three months since I've posted. A lot has happened, and there are literally a hundred sweet things I wish I could have captured to forever remember. What can I say, life happens.

We just had Thanksgiving, it was wonderful. Quiet, only one meal for us to eat (as opposed to the sometimes three we have to attend in one day), and lots of fun, quality family time. It's supposed to start snowing in a few hours, and into the night. With a five and a three-year-old, it's magical.

We put the Christmas tree up this afternoon. Full on decorating will have to wait until the Hubs gets home, but the kids and I had fun putting it up while listening to Christmas music. Baby girl found two big stockings, a hat, and a door decoration, put them all on (door decoration used as a purse), and stated, "Look, I'm all covered with Christmas!"

JP helped me assemble the tree and make sure it was "sturdy," one of his favorite words, and was so proud that he got to stand on the stairs and put on the star. Just as he did, L. spontaneously sang, "God is Jesus, God is Jesus, thank you for our Christmas tree, thank you for our Christmas tree, Amen, Amen."

I know I keep using this work, but again, magical.

Life is good, God is good!

Siblings

I saw this on facebook today, it was my status on this day in 2010 (a year ago) and it gave me a good laugh -

"L.'s saying 'Dada' and JP is telling her, 'Dada's at work. Work is no fun. I know you need Dada, but he's at work, and it's no fun.' I think I need to talk to Hubs about what he tells JP about work, otherwise he's never going to want to get a job!"

Love it!

Also, this happened the other night, right after L moved from her crib into a big girl bed. I love how JP takes care of his little sister, he really does love (and like) her -

The kids were getting ready for bed, and they both decided to hide behind the curtain panels in JP's bedroom. I overheard JP whispering to L, "This is how I do it, L. I pretend to fall asleep, then wait until Mommy and Daddy fall asleep, and then I sneak down into their bed. So that's how you have to do it." How adorable is that? And that's NOT how he does it, he most definitely falls asleep, but really does sneak down into our bed in the wee hours of the morning.

And tonight JP is spending the night with one of his grandparents. He just called to say goodnight and asked to talk to L. I put him on the speaker phone and let him talk to his little sister. First he said, "Hi, Poopyhead!" but then he followed it with, "L, tomorrow we're gonna do lots of fun things. I don't have school tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, so we get to stay home all day together!" How do you top that? The bond that those two have is magic. We, and they, are so blessed.

We are a bunch of heathens...

My four-year-old son said "Motha Focker" today (we spent the weekend at the lake with a whole host of characters) and my sweet and brilliant husband left a little love mark in a very noticeable location.

Like the title of the post says...

Swim Lessons

We signed LM up for swimming lessons this summer. His first week was during the very first week of summer vacation, and he did so well! Before the lessons, he would sit on the pool steps, and that was about it. If his daddy or I tried to get him into the water he would almost have a panic attack, even though he wanted to be in the water so much. So during the first week of lessons he learned how to jump off the side of the pool all by himself, go underwater, safely reach for a toy in the pool, float in his back with assistance, and swim a few feet with his head underwater. We've had lots of opportunities for swimming since then and he's enjoyed the practice.

During this second week, his teacher, Ms. Holly said she just expands on the skills they already learned. For example, now they jump into the deep end and swim all the way to the shallow end. I can't wait to see LM do this!

LM is a little bit shy and reserved (I wonder where in the world he got that from?), and he likes me to stay at the lessons while he's there. Parents are persona non grata, however, we even have to drop the kids off at the curb and wait in the car when it's time to pick them up. Every day, LM asks me the same thing, "Will you stay parked in the car on the street while I'm at swimming?" Every day I say, "Yes," even though I have no intention of doing such a thing. His lesson lasts an hour and it's only 10 minutes from home, so I either run an errand or two or even go home (as I am now). He's caught on to my tricks a few times after he gets back in the car and sees a Starbucks cup or a few grocery bags. He's never happy about it. So today as I was dropping him off he said, "Mommy, just wait on the street, don't go for a walk or go to a store or anything. Just stay in the car. You can even turn on the radio if you want." LOL!! So sweet and so innocent. I love my LM, one day when he's a parent he'll understand and forgive my little white lie.

Pushing the Limits

How did I get two children who don't know how to listen? I was such a good kid, so afraid to get in trouble and disappoint my parents. My two, wonderful and sweet as they are, test the limits throughout the day, each and every day. You know the expression "give an inch and they'll take a mile?" Well, with mine, you don't have to give an inch and they'll still take a mile. I guess this means they feel secure with me? Can I put that positive spin on it? I'm guessing their strong wills will do them good when they're older, they'll be a bit bold, think for themselves, and hopefully stand up for themselves. Right now, though, when they're both little and in need of rules and structure, it's driving their mama nuts.

Love you BG and LM.

Bits and Pieces

For the past week, Baby Girl (30 months old) has been calling me "Mom." I'm not a fan of this new development.

Little Man went home with Grandma to spend the night right after we bought his new light-up tennis shoes. Grandma called last night to say that she and Little Man turned out all the lights in her house and were having a good time stomping around and making the lights on the shoe light up. She said he was so very happy to finally have his shoes, and that his smile over them was priceless. Makes a momma happy.

Blogger has been having problems lately. Both yesterday and today I had ideas to blog about, the time to blog, and the desire to blog, all at the same time, which almost never happens. So I try to log on and write, and....CAN'T. Go figure.

Baby Girl has a new bad habit. During mealtime, she will take a bite, chew it up, then spit it out on her plate and say, "I don't like it." It's gross and irritation, she really isn't eating much, just chewing and spitting. Hopefully this phase will pass soon.

On a cute note, yesterday I was sitting in my bedroom folding clothes, and Baby Girl rounded the corner with her pretend birthday cake in hand, held it out to me and yelled, "Supwise!" She didn't just say it, either, but sort of jumped and threw her arms out, very energetic and very cute. Later on in the day while I was cleaning the real kitchen she decided she needed to clean her play kitchen. And she did. Very thoroughly and methodically. I think she may have gotten my cleaning bug, oh my. ;)

I just remembered this from our family vacation to Chattanooga. In our first hotel, we checked in and got somewhat settled when we realized that we were in a handicapped accessible room, which meant no bathtub. Having two small children and having no bathtub don't really go together, so we requested another room. A few days later, Little Man goes, "I want to go back to the candy happy room." It took us a few minutes but we figured it out - handicapped got switched around to candy happy. Cute. That's also how Monger got her name. :)

(Blogger is acting up again and won't let me spell check. Spelling is not my strong suit so I'm sure this is full or errors, please ignore.)

An Update in Pictures

I went on a girls' trip last week, the first time I've gone away from my kids for more than 24 hours in 4 1/2 years. It was looong overdue, and it was fabulous. Two friends, including "Cuz," and I took a road trip to New Orleans, I hadn't been in at least 10 years and I had missed it so. We skipped the college-ish drinking scenes and did some more grown-up stuff. Not to say that we didn't have a few cocktails or anything, we did, but thankfully we all agreed that downing hand grenades on Bourbon was a pastime best put behind us. :) We left on a Thursday morning and came back early Sunday afternoon, it was the perfect length away. It was enough time to relax and really start to miss my family and then it was time to come home. I took this picture when I arrived back home on Mother's Day, because I had just said in the car, "Maybe The Husband will have cleaned the house for me for mother's day."

Welcome home and Happy Mother's Day, lol!

The next picture can go under the heading of Why I'm Always Cleaning and Yet My House is a Mess. Meet "The Box." This box full of The Husband's winter clothes went into our storage room when we moved into our house 7 years ago. There it stayed for about 4 years, until one day we cleaned out the storage room and the box ended up being shuffled into the attic to be sorted through on a later date. Again, there it stayed for about 2 years until we cleaned out the attic and The Husband brought it downstairs to our bedroom, oh in November, he was going to go through it since it was full of winter clothes. Well, this box stayed by the wall of our bedroom until two weeks ago (end of April), when I finally had enough and The Husband moved it next to the stairs. Still full of winter clothes, and with a few newly bagged items on top. I am really chuckling as I write this, I'm not being snarky at all, but this picture truly says a thousand words.

Another addition to Why I'm Always Cleaning and Yet the House is Always a Mess.

The Pantry. I organize this pantry a little bit every day, and it gets a huge overhaul at least once a month, but this is what it looked like when I came back from my trip. Ignore all the junk food in there, I had been gone for a few days, remember? I see this and can only think that it's nice to know that my family needs me. :)

This next one I took after I made the bed for the third time that day. As you can see, making the bed around here is a HUGE waste of time. :)




I made yogurt! And it was easy, and it tasted good!! Baby Girl is eating us out of house and home with her yogurt consumption. Even when I buy the big tubs we are spending quite a bit of money on yogurt. So....I thought I would give making it myself a try. It worked, who knew you could make your own yogurt?!

Poor Little Man, his momma loves classic children's clothing, and classic children's shoes. So last year when he started asking for light-up tennis shoes, I balked - and said "No." Well, after nearly two years of asking, and when after completely growing out of the line of nice shoes I like to buy, I caved. He now owns light-up tennis shoes. He couldn't be happier with them, and that makes me love them, too.

They Fight Sleep Like No Others

My kids, do, that is. Today Mama really wanted them to take a nap. It was one of those days that a mom counts down the minutes to a few minutes of freedom. I'm fighting some sort of bug, or allergy, or who knows what, all I know is I don't feel well. Also, I stayed up half the night because we were supposed to have really bad weather (when even the down to earth, nonchalant weather forecaster says it's going to be bad, I begin to worry, and he said things could get ugly.) So when I woke up at 2:30 a.m. and heard the winds picking up, I thought maybe I should check it out. So I went into the den to see what was going on, only to see - nothing. I was, however, wide awake. So I wait about an hour thinking I would get sleepy, but by that time weather was getting closer and the forecasters were on TV. Thankfully the tornado-producing thunderstorms petered out just as they were about to hit. I didn't even have to bring Baby Girl downstairs, all right! I was eternally grateful that I was climbing into my bed instead of the tornado closet but I was also oh so tired. Which brings me to nap time. Baby Girl wasn't having it. She fought from 12:30 until 2:00. Yep. And Little Man never did take a nap, although I somehow convinced him to stay in his room for an hour. All in all it was long enough to make a phone call to the school about next year and research and sign up for swim lessons for Little Man. Just as I was thinking about a catnap the beasts were awake. Oh well there's always an early bed time, right? Right. :)

Rite of Passage

I feel like Little Man and I have experienced a parental rite of passage together. Yesterday Baby Girl and I sat in carpool line, picked Little Man up, and headed home. We weren't but a few yards from the school property, (and a good 10 minutes from home) when I heard Little Man say, "I feel like I'm gonna throw up." Uh-oh. I didn't think much of it, he looked fine, but still I hit the gas a little bit. It wasn't but a few seconds later, though, that IT happened. Buckets of IT. Lots and lots of IT. Everywhere. I didn't have so much as a kleenex to help clean Little Man up. I did manage to spot a wayward sock in my passenger seat. I usually don't keep random things in my car, but I had recently bought new running shoes and packed a pair of socks, and I guess one fell out of my purse and onto the seat. We used that to wipe up his face, but the rest of him, his booster seat, under and behind the booster seat, the floor - covered. He was wearing a rain jacket, but nevertheless the two layers he had on under it were soaked. His underthings and socks were even soaked. Am I giving you enough of a visual image? It's an understatement to say that it was gross and disgusting. Anyway, we made it home okay. I kept asking Little Man if he was all right, or if he could wipe his face. Poor thing couldn't even talk, he just kept replying with noises, "Uhhhhhhhhhh." I got the nasty clothes off and in the wash, and got my sweet thing settled on the couch. My dear, sweet, wonderful husband came home after a long day's work and cleaned out my car. If that's not love, I don't know what is. Little Man was fine after about an hour. He's been a bit, um, backed up this week, and I think that's what the problem is. I don't think he has a bug or anything. I've kept him home from school today and am giving him lots of juice, fruit, and a bit of medicine. Hopefully he will find relief soon, and for both our sakes I hope it comes out the right end. :)

Sleepless

Little Man last night:

After nearly two hours of "bedtime," he snuck back downstairs and asked to sleep in our bed. I said "no," as neither the Hubs nor I sleep well with our tossing, turning, arm slinging, and kicking son in our bed, although we do enjoy having him with us. So then Little Man says, "If you let me sleep in your bed I'll snuggle with you in the morning, if you don't I won't give you any snuggles." The Hubs looks at me and says, "Snuggles, the only currency he has." Guess where Little Man slept? That's right...yawn.

This and That

It seems like we've been so busy lately. I'm not really sure what we've actually been actually doing, but it's taking up all our time! One thing I know that's a time eater is The Husband's work schedule. True, he is self-employed and gets to set his own schedule, but for someone like him that just means he works, and works, and works. Lately it's been 11-12 hour days, six days a week. It's been hard. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I'm so glad he has a great work ethic and is working so hard to provide for his family. That's not lip service, I really, really am grateful. His hard work allows me to stay home with the kids and do things like journal our lives via a blog, take the kids to Aardvark classes, and be a part of Little Man's school community. I am forever grateful that I get to do these things during this season of my life. Like I said, though, it's been hard. The kids have had dinner, bath, and stories by the time Daddy gets home, and by that time momma and daddy are exhausted. The good news, though, is that Hubs is working towards a goal! We are hoping to move this summer!! Whoo hoo! I can't tell you how excited that makes me. I love our little house, and our neighborhood, but it's time to move on. I'm ready. We had a realtor come look at the house last week and give us a list of things we need to do to prepare to list the house. After a week of thinking on it, the Hubs gave the green light to go ahead and proceed. The Hubs needs time to mull things over, lol! Anyway, hopefully by the end of the summer we will have sold our house, bought a house, and have a move under our belts!

On another note, here are a few cute things from Baby Girl -

She loves her Woody and Jesse dolls. She calls Woody, "Boody." Adorable. Yesterday we were riding in the car, and she was clutching "Boody" and Jesse to her chest, and said possessively, "These are MY kids!" Over and over she kept calling them, "my kids." So sweet. She's also in love with her toes. She talks about her toes all day long. Tippy toes, tippy toes. Only she doesn't say, "tippy toes." Use your imagination, but what she says sounds a little dirty, as "tippy" is a hard word for a two-year-old to say!

That's about all. Little Man's year of pre-k is almost over, I can't believe it! We are on spring break this week. The Hubs is planning on taking a day off (hallelujah!) and we might go camping overnight at a campsite that's only 30 min from home. I hope it works out, that would be so much fun!

A date with my favorite boy

I took Baby Girl to school today, for an extra day, so Little Man and I could enjoy some time together, just the two of us. We started off at Chick-Fil-A for breakfast and some playground time, then on to Whole Foods for a chocolate chocolate chip cookie, then a trip through his favorite parking garage, and finally home to watch a movie. Lovin' it. :)

Protector

So earlier today, Baby Girl was staging a nap mutiny via screaming, crying, and flinging everything in her crib across the room. After several minutes of this, and many attempts by me to calm her down and get her to sleep, Little Man decides to try. He walks into her room, right up to her crib, and says in his sweet little voice, "I'm going to take a nap now, too. I'll be right next door, and I'll leave my door open so I can protect you and keep you safe. I love you."

Melted my heart.

I love that my kids love each other, and are best friends. It was one of my huge worries when I was expecting Baby Girl. "What if they don't get along, what if Little Man hates being a big brother?" Turns out I needn't have worried at all. He is the best big brother I could have imagined. What a lucky Baby Girl.

For your entertainment

A few entertaining tidbits from the kids...

This morning Baby Girl found some loose change lying around, and I think she liked them, because she decided to put them down the front of her footed pajamas, which she can zip and unzip by herself. So she's walking around jingling, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out where this jingling was coming from. Finally I understood, she's such a cute mess.

Also, her new word is "oatmeal," only it's the word oatmeal like you've never heard before.

"Meatmo."

Yep, she says "meatmo" for "oatmeal." As in, "I want meatmo," or "I ate it all meatmo." Again, she's a cute mess.

And from Little Man, or as we call him lately, "Bubby," (Baby Girl started calling him Bubba a long time ago, and we may be from the South, but I couldn't stomach the idea that a name like Bubba might stick, so we turned it into Bubby, which is a little better.) Anyway, over the last 24 hours or so, Bubby and I have had several detailed conversations about the exact definition of what it means to poop your pants.

Really?

Yes.

I seriously think I might have a future lawyer on my hands, my oh my.

I'll spare all the details, but his definition of pooping your pants differs slightly from mine, and he's trying to convince me that his definition is correct. Needless to say, we've had more than a few pooping in your pants incidences lately. Well, according to me, that is. If you ask Bubby, he's been an angel and has not pooped in his pants.

Nobody prepares you for this kind of parenting situation.

Bubby also now knows how to do jumping jacks, push ups, and sit ups. They are as coordinated as one would think four -year - old jumping jacks, push ups, and sit ups would be. It's ridiculously cute.

Little Man's Favorite Sandwich

Well, it's very apparent that I've lost my blog mojo. That makes me a bit sad, only because the reason I blog is so I can remember some of the cute, sweet, and funny things my kids do on a daily basis. Well, I'm writing this tidbit down for posterity, so maybe when Little Man is 40 years old we'll be laughing about this - his new favorite sandwich, which is......

Bread, flat yellow cheese (cheddar), and mustard. No ham or turkey, mommy.

I am as surprised as anyone, but he ate it up!

Today, Mama lost it.

I know I've already written about how Little Man started preschool last week. Not parent's day out preschool, but "real" pre-kindergarten. Last week I was expecting tears on my part, but really none came.

Until today, that is.

Today was Little Man's second week of school, and really only his fourth day. But today held something new for me - I had to drop Little Man off in the carpool line. That's right, I had to let a stranger (a teacher at the school, but a stranger never the less) open my car door, unbuckle my newly four year old son, and walk him off to his classroom, all while I sat there and watched. Actually, I didn't really get to watch, because there were what seemed like a gazillion cars waiting behind me (this school's carpool is insane!), and I was encouraged to promptly drive away.

I had only rounded the corner (still on school property) before my face started to crumble. I didn't even know what was happening at first, the tears came and then the awareness of the emotions followed. Before I was on the street I was in full blown crying mode. I was only hoping to keep it together long enough to get away from the guys directing traffic and the other parents waiting at the stoplight. I was only semi-successful.

That was hard. An unexpected hard. Wow, it caught me by surprise. It's two hours later and I'm still tearing up thinking about it. I really enjoyed walking Little Man into his classroom, seeing the morning activities laid out, saying "Good morning" to his teacher, and giving him a hug goodbye. It doesn't seem like too much to ask, especially for a pre-k class. This morning made me realize that, even though I'm trying not to, I'm taking my babies for granted. They do grow up too fast. Little Man is already gone from me for three entire days, and while I'm glad he's learning and having fun, I don't really like it.

Maybe I should check into homeschooling...

Little Manisms

On night recently The Husband asked Little Man (newly four) what he wanted to eat for dinner. Little Man thought a minute, looked at his daddy, and said,

"A bowl of candy with candy juice."

That really was what he wanted. I think The Husband learned that if you ask Little Man an open ended question you never know how he's going to answer!

School Days..

Have I mentioned that I love Little Man and Baby Girl's school? I'm sure I have, but I'll say it again.


I LOVE their school!


Today is Little Man's third day of pre-k, and he's loving it! Yesterday I picked him up, all smiles, and he talked the entire way home. Then, once we were home, he bounced around the house, still all smiles, and told me about his day. They had a Spanish encore class yesterday, and while we were eating an after school snack, he looked at me and said, "Hola, amigos!" How fun it that!?


So this morning I took the kids to school, Baby Girl is in PDO today, and I ended up staying for nearly an hour! I walked Little Man into his classroom (last day to do that, next week it's drop him off in the carpool lane :(. ), saw where he puts his bag and where his chair is, and talked to the teacher, who gave a great report. :) I also offered my assistance in the classroom, I told the teacher I'll make copies, cut out crafts, I'll do anything. I just want to be involved in Little Man's school in some way. I really hope she'll take me up on my offer, I think it would be so much fun!


Then it was off to take Baby Girl to PDO, and I realized we were early. I mean 15 minutes early for Early Birds, which is a program that lets parents drop their children off 30 minutes early. So we found a little person playground and played for a bit, and then went on to the classroom. Once there, I tried to drop Baby Girl off and leave, really I did, but there was only one teacher in Early Birds, and she had four babies, all of whom were crying! Oh no! She was acting so calm, she said not to worry, that she "had it," but I saw the look on her face, and knew she was overwhelmed. So Baby Girl and I stayed, I grabbed a crying baby, and walked around the room with two little ones in my arms. Once one baby calmed down I grabbed another. I loved it. Soon enough a few more teachers came in and there was enough help to go around, but I still wasn't about to leave Baby Girl there with all those crying babies, and we had a few more minutes before regular hours started. So...we went to the directors office, she's really sweet and so easy to talk to. I told her what had happened and then I said, "Do you need any extra help? I'll be happy to help." What had gotten into me!? I would love to help, though. I love holding the babies, even the crying ones. I wasn't even going to put Baby Girl into Early Birds, I was planning on dropping Little Man off, then running and errand or two, then coming back and dropping Baby Girl off. However, I soon realized the ridiculousness of this plan, and decided to enroll her in Early Birds. Truly, though, except for the one day I'm planning to work, she doesn't have to be there, so it would be easy to help. Anyway, while I was in the office, several of the teachers trickled in, and many of them have taken care of Little Man at some point, and they all asked about him and how he liked pre-k. A few said they've seen him on the campus, and they reported that he looks like he's having a great time. According to them, he's smiling, playing, and behaving well. One teacher said, "The class was walking down the hall in a line, and he was actually standing in line." It was so sweet for them to tell me this, it made my heart feel so good. Finally, it was time to take Baby Girl to her regular classroom, so we made our way to it, and I dropped her off. She cried, but only for a minute. I waved to the other teachers as I left.

I think I've made friends for life in some of those teachers.

Oh, and I love this school!

Better late than never

I am so behind on posting, which I really wouldn't care about, but so much has happened lately that I don't want to forget!

We had preschool orientation last week. It was just for parents. The Husband stayed home with the kids while I went up to the school. It felt like the first day of school for me, too. I was nervous. I actually dressed well [ ;) ], putting on a nice skirt and top instead of shorts and a t-shirt. I walked into the chapel, didn't see anyone I knew, so I just took a seat. Then the parents of one of Little Man's classmates from Parent's Day Out came and sat behind me. Whew! It was nice to see familiar faces. A few minutes later a woman patted the seat next to me and said, "Is this seat taken?" I said,"no," looked up, and saw - my neighbor! She didn't realize it was me when she sat down, too funny. Her son and Little Man are great friends, and he is one grade above Little Man, and it was great to see her. Instant relief! The headmaster spoke for a few minutes, he said he thought we were probably all relieved that school was about to start and glad that our preschoolers would be out of our hair. I was thinking, "Boy, you don't understand at all, nothing could be further from the truth." I was hoping the next speaker would be a little more inspirational, and wow she didn't disappoint. At first she had a few jokes, and she was truly funny. She started off by talking about the movie Forrest Gump, and how, many years before the movie was made, she coined a phrase similar to the movie's famous, "Life is like a box of chocolates." Her phrase is, "Life is like a box of crayons. " She talked about the evolution of the crayon box. It started out as a box of eight, then as more crayons were added, it became a box of 16, then 24. Now we have boxes of 64 crayons, even 124 crayons. She also talked about how nowadays the name of each color is printed in English, Spanish, and French, and how there is a Crayola Color Hall of Fame, where retired colors go. So crayons, like life, change, and we have to change with it. She took the analogy a bit further and said that a crayon box has but only one direction, printed next to the sharpener on the back of the box, and it reads, "tear off paper before sharpening." How many of us, as children, actually followed that one direction?" she asked. We usually just crammed that crayon on in and made a big mess, paper and all. Again, life is like a box of crayons. It was very funny, I wish I had actually written this last week when I could remember all the nuances of the speech. At the time I thought to myself, "I like this lady."

I can't even remember her name, or her position, but she is fairly new to the school, and she talked about how she decided to take her current job while attending last year's parent's orientation. She talked about how she had already been offered another job, and had her heart set on it, when she had the opportunity to interview at Little Man's school. She decided to see what this school was about, interviewed, and was open to but not set on taking the position. She asked if she could attend the orientation day to get a feel for the teachers and staff, and so she did. She started off by saying she watched the parents and orientation, which was good, then she attended a staff meeting, which was boring and not so good, but it was the event that occurred after the parents left and the meetings were over that she knew her heart belonged at this school. She said that, at this school, the teachers and staff have a dedication ceremony the afternoon of orientation. They come to the chapel and sing and pray. They hold hands, they build each other up spiritually, and they pray for our kids. Not as a group, but for each child individually. This person told us, how, before the ceremony, each teacher writes the name of each child in her class on a piece of paper, places the names up on the alter, and prays individually over each name. Oh wow, that kind of got me. A stranger praying for my son, praying for a happy school year. Praying (for my son as an individual) for learning to take place, for friendships to be forged, for personal growth to occur. I'm not ashamed to say I cried right then and there. I looked over at my neighbor and she was doing the same! I mean, how freaking sweet is that!? You won't find that at any old school. I was sold! Let the school year begin! I know my son will thrive in an environment such as this. Thank you, God, for pointing me in the direction of this school and making the road to it a smooth one.