Hiatus

So, after my 8-month break from writing, I'm checking in! Hmmm....what has changed?

I finished my year at the middle school where I was trying to shape the young pre-teen minds of Memphis. Nothing left to say about that.

I got a NEW job teaching gifted classes at two elementary (!!!) schools. Gifted classes are SO fun...I didn't realize how much I missed teaching the gifted kids until I was back in the swing of things. The switch to elementary school has been challenging and the fact that I now have a 70-mile round trip commute each day is a bit taxing, but I love it. The majority of my students are engaged in the lessons and are engaging in their interactions. They want to learn and truly enjoy a challenge. It makes coming to work a joy.

My household has changed. Lily and I are on our own now. We are still in our house and have adjusted to the changes of single-parent-family living. Lily ADORES kindergarten and we are so blessed by her teacher this year. She has made some wonderful friends and loves seeing her cousins every day. We are going to be just fine. We are going to be better than fine-we are already pretty fabulous!

So, as I post from now on, I'm hoping my tone will be decidedly different. Posts about Lily will still be as glowing as ever. Posts about work will be happier. Posts about my life will be lighter and have more life than they have in a long time.

Here's to yet another chapter......

Virtual fail

So...the female students in my sixth grade classes are obsessed with this online game where they can take care of virtual babies. They feed and clothe them, find daycare for them and put them to bed.

Today, one of my students had her virtual babies taken away by virtual Child Protective Services for neglect.

Fail.

Testing, testing..can you hear me?

We are in the midst of "practice" tests for our annual state testing. Basically, it means that between circulating around the room glancing at tests to make sure students are not skipping sections, I sit around and watch a room full of preteens alternately guess or stress...

This is supposed to measure their ability to retain the information that I've killed myself teaching all year? Something is just not quite right about that.

ahem....

I could list all the excuses, middle school student-style: my computer crashed this summer and I lost everything; I started a new job that has sucked the life out of me; I have a thousand things to do every day and I get too tired to blog...

But, excuses are kind of pathetic. I'll just own up to the fact that I haven't been interested in creating anything lately. No artwork, no writing and, as you may have noticed, no blogging. This morning, I read through some posts on a blog written by my friend, Katy. Her daughter is six months old now and bears a striking resemblance to Lily in some of her pictures. She has big blue eyes and a shock of dark hair on her head (one major exception is that she got her first tooth at six months...it took Lily almost 19 months for that to happen!) I began to think about all the things I have not posted and all the things that I need to be recording for posterity.

So, here's hoping that I can pull myself out of the dumpster of preoccupation and get back in the game. In the meantime, some pictures....

This is Lily last June surrounded by pink flamingo lawn art...when we were Flocked by Young Life.

This is Lily proudly showing off her VBS T-shirt...she loved VBS! Evie and Lily on the swing in Chilhowee..."Mom, Evie is my cousin AND my best friend!" Lily and her favorite person from Trail West...Lolly, Lolly Popper. She had a unicorn birthday party for her fourth birthday because of Lolly!

Lily in the beloved green dress...year four. The great computer crash of '09 has decimated years two and three, but I am hoping to dig up some hard copies to show her growth. We have put her in this dress every year on her birthday for pictures to show how she has grown. It is so fun, since my sister and I played dress up in this dress throughout our childhood.

Cute Cousins

Aunt Jenn brought Wyatt and Caleb down for a visit this past week. We had lots of play time with Wyatt and cuddle time with Caleb...Lily adores them both!

What a difference two and a half years makes....

December 2007, three months after the accident....

March 2009...

Attention to Detail

Lily has an amazing attention to detail when she wants to....she has this thing right now where she wants to check books for the page that has the cover art on it. She will look at the cover of a book and then go through every page until she finds the matching picture inside. A cute quirk, to be sure, but beware the book that does NOT have a copy of the cover art as part of the story.



She brought a book to me the other day (one of my old Richard Scarry "Please and Thank You" books) and handed it to me with a very exasperated sigh, saying, "Mommy, this picture is NOT in this book!" I tried to explain to her that sometimes the cover is different from the pictures inside and then I went through the book looking for a match. I thought at one point I had found it and I was pretty proud of spotting it until I showed it to her...



She looked at me with a very knowing expression, pointed at the hippo's mouth and said, "(Sigh) Mommy. This hippo's mouth is closed. It is not the same."



Whoops.

Lily Love

OK, so you know that feeling you got when you fell in love for the first time? I mean, really , truly fell in love...that sense of excitement and that need to be around the object of your affection at all times at all costs?

I certainly felt that when Lily was born. I felt it when she grasped my finger with her little fist the first time. I felt it that sweet September morning when she smiled at me for the first time. I felt it when she snuggled up next to me as she fell asleep...knowing that she was safe in her mommy's arms.

As Lily got older, I immediately felt wistful for those days gone by...they go by too fast! But every new discovery she made thrilled me. When she discovered her toes or discovered that the baby in the mirror was her own sweet face I was charmed. When she discovered the motions she needed to crawl and then walk I was proud-but a little sad to know that it meant independence from mommy. Her first words were a joy to me and her first sing-song notes of lullabies and snappy alphabet melodies were literally music to my ears.

After my accident-and not being able to see her or hold her forever-my desperation to be around her and be mommy increased. It was so long before I was able to hold her in my arms again. So long before I could really play with her or comfort her when she needed me. I cherised those moments that she found a way to snuggle into mommy's wheelchair-bound lap and hold on to my shirt so that I could push us into the next room. She adapted so well to my limitations and still does even when she really just wants mommy to run with her and play like the other mommies do.

Now, as I see her grow into a little girl-a funny, charming, smart little girl-I am falling in love all over again. Her observations on the world around her are amazing to me and her sense of humor thrills me. I love the fact that she comes to me in the morning so that I will snuggle with her in my bed before we greet the day. I love that even though she is a "big girl" she still wants me to rock and sing to her at night before sleep. I adore our little routines-whether it be planning out what we are going to do the next day or going over all the big events of her day or even anticipating what is going to cause her to flip out in a three-year-old tantrum in order to nip it in the bud!

Watching her develop relationships with other people gives me such hope for her future. She loves to spend time with her cousins, she gets excited for every opportunity to go to church or school to see her friends. I hope that she will always have relationships in her life that bring her happiness. And, even though I know I can't protect her from heartbreak, I pray that it will not devastate her and that she will have friends that love her and will care for her when she needs it and I'm not right there with her.

She makes me happy. Even when she is driving me crazy with the "mommy, mommy, mommy, MOMMY!" moments, I am blessed to be hers. Seeing her happy causes those little bubbles of joy to rise up in my heart. And knowing that no matter what life brings me and no matter how many tough episodes we will have to endure, I will always have my little girl to look at and love is the greatest gift I could ask for.

Guess what Lily learned in preschool...

Lily learned how to use scissors in preschool this week. She has spent approximately two hours today cutting an old coloring book into strips.

Paper...you've been warned.

"Me" time

I am preparing to leave for a short trip to CA to attend the wedding of a very dear friend. If you include travel days (verrrry loooong travel days) I will be gone a total of six days. Just me. Alone. No husband, no preschooler, nobody.
Sounds relaxing, right?
Wrong.
I'm sure that this will be a wonderful-albeit hurried-trip. I'm excited to see friends that I have not seen in over 10 years and hang with my Sharon. But getting everything settled to leave has not been easy. I think it is almost easier to pack for myself and for Lily when we have taken trips together. Packing for just myself-and the myriad of activities I have planned-and trying to leave notes about every possible need Lily may have for the various people that are going to pitch in to watch her while I'm gone has been nerve wracking. Yes, I know that everyone who is going to be taking care of her has done it before and knows my child well. But they are not her mommies...
Plus, this is the first time since I was bedridden at the Med, unable to move my limbs on my own that I have been away from her for any extended period of time. (Cue the sniffles.)
So, as I write this, Lily is sleeping facedown on the living room floor because she was too tired to make it to her bedroom once I put her down. I'm gonna go watch her snooze and be there when she wakes up since I'll miss the next few moments like those.

Braids!

This is a HUGE deal...no, really! The nerve damage in my left arm and hand have caused a lag in reaction time for the past two years. My left hand is still slow to process what my brain is telling it to do, and too much exertion (like typing or knitting, etc.) causes it to grow tired very quickly and feel a bit like what I imagine carpal tunnel syndrome must feel like.

However, one of my big goal this past year has been to braid Lily's hair. I used to be able to french braid my own hair upside down and backwards, so it is tremendously frustrating that I cannot handle such a simple task.

But....

....after almost 30 minutes of Lily standing patiently on her Disney princess footstool

....and mommy wrestling with her smooth-as-silk hair....

...we have braids.

Loving it...

With all of the stresses in my life right now (fun things like physical pain, financial strain and general stress about what our lives will be like in the next few months) I have taken time to stop and smell the roses. Or, in the case of me and a digital camera: Stop and take the pictures.
While I'm not going to upload them all here, I have taken almost 200 pictures in the past few days! Yes, most of them are of Lily or Lily and her friends, or Lily and her cousins. I was thinking about the memories I've captured, though, and had another one of those wistful, "I'm-so-glad-I'm-still-alive-to-see-this" moments. One of the picture stops was at a birthday party for Lily's friend, Emma. All the mommies were sitting around watching our kids climb up the water slide ladder and throw themselves down the slide with sheer, delighted abandon and someone started talking about age. Everyone came up at least two years shy of my current 34 years. When I told them I was happy about my age, I think I confused some of them. Then I said that, medically speaking, I should not have made it past 32 and I'm grateful for every day that God is giving me, that cleared it all up!
Later that evening, Lily and I watched soccer camp, played with friends and took a spin through the Collierville Town Square. We got out and walked around and I marveled again at the turn my life has taken. We live in a place in this world where over a hundred people are lounging around outside on blankets and lawn chairs listening to the "bluegrass picking" that other people are sharing. There were at least three different groups of people that show up on Friday nights to stroll around or plant themselves in one section of the square to play music together. Anyone can join in and play or sing along. While bluegrass is not exactly my music genre of choice, Lily adored the sounds floating around the main gazebo as she danced to guitars, dulcimers and a washtub bass. And watching her dance while old gospel songs and even some Lynard Skynard somehow managed to mesh around us was peaceful.

Someday...

Lily and I were sitting on the floor in her room this evening when she pointed to my scarred knee and ankles and said, "Mommy, when your boo-boos go away, then you can run?" I told her yes, and bit back the tears. What a sweet girl...she just wants her mommy to be able to run and play with her!

Mini Me

Anyone that knows me, knows that I love painting. So, when Lily was invited to a birthday party at Paint a Piece, I was curious to see how it would go. She loves her finger paints and her sparkly watercolors, but will sometimes lose interest pretty quickly. (She is only 2 and a half, after all! Not exactly an age known for long-term focus!)


And then the painting started...

Kids that started after her finished up and she was ready to put more coats of paint on her pig. She had a dead-on focus on her mission...even with my prompting to finish up since everyone else was getting ready to move on!

Of course, one thing got her attention on something other than her painting:

Cupcakes!

(That would work on her mommy, too!)

A Tip

OK, so I keep telling myself that I'm going to get back into this blog-world. Never seems to happen lately. So, I'll just put another cute Lily saying in here and go off to bed. Maybe tomorrow I'll write more??

Everytime Lily brushes her teeth, she ends with spitting in the sink. Except she doesn't spit. She very earnestly leans over the basin and says "Ahhhh-TIP!"

Yo ho, Yo ho...

Lily has been singing her version of the Pirates of the Caribbean song this week. It is my new favorite...

"Yo ho, Yo ho, the pirates like to read!"

Gotta love it.

Disneyland!

Lily and I made our first trip to that American Institution in the West, Disneyland. While part of me is kind of tired of the commercialized nature of everything Disney, and I really do wonder what is next in the advertisements on the rides (It's a Small World, brought to you by Botox, maybe?) I have to say that the place itself is magical. I spent most of the day watching Lily's face as she reacted to the sights around her and it was wonderful!

Once I got Lily past the excitement of waterfalls and stairs-there are A LOT on the Tarzan treehouse-she started to get into the new experiences surrounding her. Clearly, she is certainly her Momma's girl. Her favorite ride of the day was Pirates of the Caribbean. I was sort of wary of taking her on it at first, but eventually we went for it. My dearest friend, Sharon, was our Disney buddy for the day so we figured we could talk her through as much of the ride as necessary. In the end, Lily loved it so much that she asked more than once during our day there to "go back and see the pirates."

Another highlight was when one of the "crew members" working at the Haunted Mansion (after giving me a dollop of Purell to wipe on Lily's hands after she touched everything in sight) gave Lily a 1st Visit button. Lily was so proud of it and checked it frequently to make sure that it was still prominently featured on the front of her coat.

Andwhat would a first trip to Disneyland be without Mickey Mouse ears? I told Lily that she could choose any pair she liked and was certain that she would pick the pink ones with a tiny tiara perched on the top. Nope. She wanted the ones with the fairy on them. So appropriate since she is kind of saucy like Tinkerbell.

Lily did all the classic kid things that day: ate her weight in sugar, stared in amazement at the size of Goofy in real life, squirmed mercilessly in line (thankfully we didn't have many of those) and crashed into the nap wall while Sharon carried her from one ride to the next.

All in all, the commercialism of the business really doesn't overshadow the wonder in your kid's eyes the first time they see Sleeping Beauty's castle or Mickey Mouse walking down Main Street. And the wonder in my kid's eyes is enough to make me love it all the more.

Stress

Have you ever been so stressed out that you were pretty sure that your entire body was vibrating? If you hear a low humming sound coming from my general direction, it is probably my stressed-out nerves.

Happy Birthday, Christmas!

We've had a kind of down-in-the-dumps last couple of weeks...a dear friend of mine is in the throes of chemo for her lymphoma, holidays are always tough when dealing with the loss of loved ones and our sweet dog, Gator suddenly died on December 5th. Ugh.

So, it is nice to step back sometimes and see all the spectacle through the eyes of a 2-year-old. Last year, every time someone would say Merry Christmas, Lily would reply with "Ho, ho, ho." This year, every time Lily sees Christmas lights (on trees, houses, etc.) she says, "Happy BIRTHday, Christmas!"

From the mouths of babes, right?

M is for Banana

Lily's class at Kids' Day Out this year has a weekly homework assignment. On Wednesdays, they get a piece of paper with a large letter on it. The kids are supposed to color it and then cut out pictures that start with that letter and glue them on. Since Lily cannot really cut-or glue-or pick out the pictures on her own, it is kind of my homework, too. I'm kind of obnoxious with it, really, but it is fun. I keep sticking on the same picture of my sister over and over and point out things that begin with different letters in the picture...and on the letter "D" I stuck on a picture of Dave Navarro. Love it.
Part of the sharing on Fridays in class is going through the pages and having the kids name the pictures. So, on Lily's "B" page, there were about 10 pictures that she can name easily, but my favorite part is the pronunciation: "bear, books, ball, boy, baby, manana." No matter how many times I say it or point to it, the banana is still a "manana."