Cuesta Preschool

Wyatt's teacher, Cindy, takes a lot of pictures of the kids throughout the day. She gave them to me this week and I was delighted to get a peek into all the fun he's been having.

These shots don't even include the day an enormous snake was brought into his classroom or the time he held a tiny white mouse. They also don't include field trips to various departments around campus like biology, physical education and theatre. They also don't capture the way he looks forward to going to school and said, "I love you, Cindy," to his teacher when he went to the bathroom on the potty for the first time at school.

I can't really put into words how thankful we are for his preschool experience this year. His teachers are consistently outstanding and they seem to find ways to make it easier to be a parent of a toddler. I had no idea that was even possible. Next semester I'll be teaching three classes and Wyatt will be graduating to three mornings a week. We can't wait!

November

I took a Thai cooking class with a friend and learned how to make spring rolls and panang curry. I also made a few new friends.

Wyatt and I spent a long weekend in Portland while Garett went to Puerto Rico for work. It was another memorable weekend with good friends. Rebekah already covered the highlights here so I'll just add a few more:

- The bounce house in the garage where the kids must have spent at least 10 hours jumping.

- Leisurely shopping in Anthropologie and finding the perfect things for my niece. (Thank you, Ben, for being with the kids!)

- Amazing Rebekah-made meals and treats. (I do not know how she is able to make food with heavy whipping cream so frequently and stay so slim but kudos to my friend and her enviable metabolism.)

- Church at The Pearl with Suzy and Lukas followed by dim sum.

- Watching the late night Nevada football game on my phone in bed and almost waking up Wyatt with my cheers at the end of the game.

Wyatt and his classmates prepared lunch for their families and I got to spend a little time at Wyatt's preschool. He's in a big dress-up phase right now and wore this hat nearly the entire time I was there. Have I mentioned how much we love his preschool? Last week on a rainy day they put on rain coats and boots and scoured the campus for puddles to jump in. The week before they built a huge mobile for their class that involved pouring concrete into buckets, drilling holes into wood and a lot of painting. When I pick him up, he's in different clothes 90% of the time and his hair is often multi-colored because of the wonderfully messy time he's had all morning. I could not ask for more.

We painted pictures for our family for Thanksgiving and Wyatt experimented with watercolors.

A lot of cuddling takes place in our house. Wyatt now requests "family cuddle."

We spent Thanksgiving in Visalia with Garett's family and it was wonderful. I am so thankful for our relationships and especially the bond between Wyatt and his cousins Olivia and JT.

And, even though you can't tell from the above list, we've also had some tough things over the course of the month. They aren't usually the moments when I whip out my camera but they nonetheless are part of life.

My health is still a daily struggle and we're prayerfully considering various options to deal with it. I've struggled emotionally in addition to the physical battle and, at times, am too overwhelmed to engage much in life.

We continue learning how to parent a two year old boy mostly with trial and error (though I am trying not to emphasize the error) and a lot of prayer. Garett and my teamwork seems to wax and wane and Garett mentioned the other day that we are more regularly forgetting that we are, indeed, on the same team. Oh yes, same team.

As we focus on survival, loving well is more challenging than usual and, by the grace of God, we discover new opportunities to be stretched. How do I feel about these "opportunities"? On a good day, I lean into them and am moved deeply by God's love. Other days I run, feel cold, ignore and am angry. The pendulum swings back and forth and so goes life these days.

I am hopeful that this Advent season will bring a decreased focus on myself and my circumstances and an increased desire for our God who sustains, loves and redeems.