A New Adventure

The biggest blessings are sometimes those that are disguised as something painful. Last May I got the most devastating news I had ever received--I wouldn't be going back into my Kindergarten classroom in the Fall. It was a blessing in disguise, though. Chapman was born in September, and I've gotten to stay at home with him ever since. It's been the most fun job being his mommy and being with him every waking minute of the day.

But in the back of my mind I still longed for having the teaching career I'd worked so hard for. I'd see cute teaching ideas on Pinterest, and it would make me miss the classroom even more. Beginning in January I decided I wanted to get on a few sub lists at preschools around town. I sort of dragged my feet though, because I wasn't ready just yet. In February I started calling around and compiling a list of places to take my resume. I ended up only taking it to one preschool nearby, but I got on the sub list and anxiously awaited my first call! 

Before I even booked my first subbing date I got a call from the preschool director last week. She said they had a permanent sub position opening up and wanted to know if I was interested--of course I was! I met with her this morning, and she offered me the job for the remainder of the school year! 

I am so excited to announce that I will be co-teaching a 3 year old class {the kids have all turned 4, so it's not as scary as it sounds!} at Peachtree Presbyterian Preschool beginning on April 14th until the end of the school year. It's the perfect situation for me and our family. I will work MWF from 8:30-12:30, so I'll still have afternoons and Tuesdays and Thursdays with my Chapman. He's going to get to go to the preschool nursery, which I am so excited about. I think it will be great for him to interact with babies his own age. It's going to give me time out of the house, I'll make some money of my own again {finally...I've sure missed that!}, and Chapman will be exposed to other little people, but we will still have our time together on my off days--it's the best of both {working and staying at home} worlds. Hopefully it will be something that I can continue next school year! 

I'm so excited to get back in the classroom! One thing that will be different is the preschool uses the Reggio approach. Aside from reading a little about Reggio online and seeing Reggio ideas on Pinterest, I don't know much about it. So I'll report more on it later once I get a good feel for it. Reggio is totally different than what I am accustomed to when it comes to teaching, so I welcome the challenge of exploring and probably changing the way I view education.

I know without a doubt that this is all happening in God's time. Before now, I would have cried at the idea of leaving Chapman to go back to work--even if it was only part time. But now I am ready. I am ready to put my teacher hat back on! 

Chapman is SIX Months Old!

Baby boy, you are half a year old! Holy cow. I don't even want to think about how fast the second half of the year is going to fly by. We went for your 6 month check up and you weigh 17 pounds 11 ounces (55th percentile} and are 27 1/4 inches long (75th percentile}. You got an oral vaccine and two shots. You didn't cry for the first shot, but you screamed briefly for the second one...honestly, I think Mommy hates the shots more than you.  Dr. Koenig says you're healthy and perfect; we agree 100 percent!

You're getting so squirmy, it's harder to get a lot of great pictures of you. Here's what the majority of your pictures looked like when I did your 6 month shoot.

You're still sleeping through the night, but you have moved your bedtime up to 7:30. Now you sleep from 7:30pm-7:00am. Keep it up! Nap times are not set in stone. You take a morning nap between 8:45 and 9:00 every morning, but there's no rhyme or reason to how long your morning nap is. Sometimes its 45 minutes; other days it's 2 hours. You nap in the afternoons around 2:00--again, it could be a 45 minute nap or a 2 hour nap. I take lots of pictures of you when you're sleeping--there's nothing more peaceful.

You always wake up so happy!

You are now eating Stage 1 baby food at every meal in addition to your formula bottle. For breakfast you eat a jar of fruit. You LOVE bananas, you like pears and apples, and you HATE prunes and peaches. I've given you banana oatmeal a few times, but you're not really a fan--we will revisit oatmeal later. You get a jar of veggies and half a jar of fruit for lunch and dinner. Sweet potatoes and peas are your favorite veggies, but you like all of the others too. Next week you're going to start Stage 2 foods! You've also gone from 5 bottles a day to 4; it makes washing bottles so much easier!

That's what you think about peaches...

You can still wear some 6 month clothes, but we've started buying 9 month pajamas and they are much roomier. Your closet is FULL of 12 month clothes for the spring and summer; hopefully it will warm up soon so you will be able to wear them! You moved up to size 3 diapers a couple of weeks ago; you just keep growing like a weed.

You're learning new things every day. You can sit up all by yourself now--no more falling over {well, occasionally you still fall backwards, but not often}. You will sit in the floor and play with your toys for about 30 minutes at a time. It's so fun to watch you choose which toys you want to play with. You can roll from your back to your tummy now. You don't do it all the time, though. I think it's because you don't like being on your tummy so you're just not that interested. You still love bouncing in your jumparoo. Bath time is fun these days; you sit up like a big boy in your duck bathtub. You play with your bath toys and have a grand ol' time!

You experienced your second snow of your life within 2 weeks of your first snow! We stayed at DeDe and Grandy's just incase our power went out. 

 Then we celebrated your first Valentine's Day! Abigail sent you this cute Valentine's bow tie! 

 We made a card for daddy...you liked holding the markers! 

 The day after Valentine's we went to Birmingham.

Lunch at Ragtime with Mommy and Grandmommy!

We had dinner with Aunt Nee and Uncle Kenny and Grandmommy and Jamie!

Uncle Brooks was in town.

 We had lunch with baby Harrison! 

 We were gone for 12 hours this day--you were a trooper and napped on the go! 

 We had dinner with your future girlfriend, Mae! 

 Y'all had your first kiss ;)

...and the bizzilion other pictures I think are so cute...

 

 You spent the night with DeDe and Grandy at their house for the first time! 

Mommy and Daddy love you precious child!