Beyond Baby

This year, 2014, my baby will be starting full day Kindergarten.  It seems so hard to believe that this precious baby that came into my life such a short time ago is going to be off to school, the start of her building her own life independent of me.

Before Sydney was born I had a very happy and full life.  I had a job I loved, great friends, a wonderful relationship with Paul and the world by the tail.  I knew that having a baby would both change and complete my world, which she did.  When she was born I gave up my job to stay at home with her full time and she really has become my sole focus in life over these past four years.

The challenge is, I feel as though I've lost a bit of myself in this whole motherhood thing.  The woman that I was before becoming a Mom has been shelved away for a greater purpose but I have the feeling as this year unfolds that I'll need to find her again and dust her off as I get a good chunk of my own life back.

One of the blogs that I read on a regular basis is called 'The Happiest Home.'  I so enjoy reading this blog on a daily basis and Megan, a Mom of four children who are now almost all of school age, has started a program called "Beyond Baby" for Moms just like me who are feeling a little out of sorts trying to figure ourselves out outside of our children and identity in being a Mom.

Every week Megan sends an e-mail out with some homework and reading.  One of the things that she asked us to do was to get ourselves a journal so that we could write and explore our thoughts, feelings and dreams on paper.

So I got myself this beautiful purple leather bound journal to kick off this new little project, I'm excited to see what unfolds from it all.

This week Sydney went for her Kindergarten assessment at York House School where we have applied for her to go to Kindergarten.  She was quite reluctant to leave me at first but once she got settled she had a great time, she even said to me at the end of it all: "I had the best time EVER at York House!"  It was very sweet.  She left the assessment with a beautiful picture that she'd coloured and a sticker on her hand, not a bad morning!

We had Sydney's first art class of the season this week too at the 4 Cats art studio in Kerrisdale.  Syd had the best time painting her canvas and in the end abandoned her brush all together and just painted with her hands!

Sydney and Daddy have a fun tradition of building forts together in the living room out of the couch cushions and blankets and pillows.  Last night over dinner Sydney was begging Paul to build her a fort, he told her he would after dinner but then we got busy cleaning up and getting Syd off to bed and totally forgot about building her a fort.

So this morning Sydney and I woke up to find something special made by Daddy:

Along with a note:

Syd was thrilled, she actually gasped as she came down the stairs and saw what Daddy had done.  I gave her a flashlight and let her sit inside the fort to have her breakfast. 

What a fun and fantastic way to start the day!