My baby is in kindergarten!

Lilly's 1st Day of Kindergarten.  

I feel like Lilly should be entering preschool for the first time, or even just learning to walk.  But instead she has begun kindergarten.  Her journey of learning has just taken a huge leap.  I remember when she was a baby and people would say that time flies, and that she'll be grown before I know it.  Well, they weren't lying.  There are some days when I just cannot believe it.  It feels like yesterday that she was in my womb, sticking her toes in between my ribs.  (I can still feel that spot sometimes!)  

Ocean Grove, NJ

That's why sometimes I just need to take a day off; get off this crazy ride we call life.  I took Lilly down the shore.  One day.  One day was what I absolutely, positively needed, though more would have been nice.  We both needed to feel the sand between our toes, the waves washing over us, hearing them crash against the shore.  It was seriously one of the best days of my life with Lilly.  Lilly is her mother's daughter, in her love of the shore.  (Yes, in NJ we go to the shore.)  I had to drag her from the ocean to drink non-salty water.  She was completely covered in sand when she was out of the water.  She was riding waves in.  "I'm bodysurfing, momma!"  We took our time going there in the morning.  We stayed on the beach until we got to hungry for dinner.  It was just...the best.

Moments before she dashed off to the surf.

I promise she was smiling.  It was super bright!  

Lent is around the corner

Lent starts this coming Wednesday.  Most of my Catholic friends grew up giving something up for Lent.  It was often something that could, in a way, be easily controlled by our parents...no ice cream, sweets, TV.  As I matured, I learned about picking something to give up that had meaning of some sort, something a little challenging.  I also learned, probably because I went to Catholic school, about doing something extra.

Fast forward to the present time and I have been contemplating what I will do for Lent this year.  I came across an article on Busted Halo that presents the why and how to decide what to do for Lent eloquently.  I know that I want this Lent to be one of spiritual growth for me.  Maybe I will go to bed earlier so that I can wake up earlier to have dedicated praying time every morning.  Maybe I will give up something like the cream in my coffee.  I really LOVE my coffee with cream in it, so every time I drink it without it, I will remember what I am doing and why.  It is definitely something for me to think about and pray about in the next few days.

What are you going to do for Lent?

Momma Moments

"Cheese"

I know we all have them...proud parent moments.  As Lilly matures I am having more and more of these moments.  Today I took some time to take Lilly to the playground to enjoy the sunny winter day.  We were the only people there so I was able to really play with Lilly, instead of stand back and supervise her play with other children.  

Lilly has a cautiousness to her that reminds me much of myself.  In some ways I am grateful for that because I don't really worry that she is going to throw herself off the top of the jungle gym for fun.  But, I never want fear to interfere with something she wants to do.  

At our local playground there are a few things that she has really wanted to do this past autumn, but she was just a tad too short to do so without me partially holding her.  Add her fear to it, and it was something I had to tell her she had to wait until she was taller to do.  One was the fireman's pole, which she did a few times with my spotting today.  The other was something similar, with a pole that she had to reach out to and then put her feet on, but she could climb down.  I guided her twice, both verbally and placing her feet where they needed to go at times.  From there...she was scrambling up the chain web and climbing down this other thing and then back again.  

Look at her go!

Also, there is a tunnel slide of which she has been very fearful, and she was able to go down it several times today.

Peeking over...

And down she goes!

In that moment when she independently climbed down that equipment I was filled with amazement that I get to be the mother of this incredible little girl.