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It’s been a while, I know.  Life has been a little busy in my world.

Buttercup has started preschool!  This was a huge step for us in a lot of ways.  She absolutely loves it, and there was not a tear or a frown.  I’m so thrilled with the teachers I want to kiss them every time I see them.  They feel like family:  all warmth and sweetness.  The preschool is so homey and comforting, and she is always talking about the teachers and her “best friends.”  It’s only a two-day week, and I am eyeing up the four day schedule with longing in my heart.  What a God sent blessing this is.

She comes home with adorable and usually seasonal projects.  So often for the last three years, it’s been us making projects to give to someone else like her daddy, grandparents, or friends.  Now, when I pick her up from school, she always has gifts in her cubby for me.  “This one is for you, Mommy!”  It thrills me.

We went to see quite a few preschools from the highest end to the lowest end.  There was a lot of variety.  How we decided on this preschool was just the recommendation of friends who have children there.  Everyone who spoke about the school raved about it.  It took lots of email and chitty-chat with the teachers, but I got her a place in the school.

The preschool has provided me with the first consistent break from motherhood I’ve had in three years.  While I’ve enjoyed being there for my little gal, it’s also a great comfort to have her in a school that reinforces the things we’ve taught her.  I have time to work during the days without needing Buttercup to be still sleeping, napping, or the husband home.  It’s a delight.

The best part is the school’s proximity to our house.  It’s very close by, and we walk there together and back.  She loves the little walk, and it’s so beautiful with the fall leaves and crisp morning air.  Thank God for the good teachers in her life.

Despite the chaos of the world in general appearing to fall apart around us, I am finding happiness in the little things.  Not to be repetitive, but the ballet class is truly the best thing that could have happened to us.

I have a total “I wish I was like that” crush on the ballerina who teaches the class.  She’s so imaginative with the kids, and to say she is graceful is a gross understatement.  Today, she passed out laminated paper keys and danced around the room with us.  We all reached up high to try to open the illusionary tall door, crouched low to try and open the pretend little door, and finally we succeeded in opening the unseen middle sized door.  I think I may or may not be losing my mind, but the music, the imagination, the flying around the room on my tip-toes pretending to be a bird - what adults get to do that?

I think the beauty of ballet might be celebrating the capability of the body to arch.  I have no idea what I’m talking about, but that is what it looks and feels like to me.

I think it’s partly because there are just women in the class that I feel so free to dance around trying to mimic the graceful ballerina with my clumsy limbs or maybe I have stopped caring.  I’m not sure, but it’s a delight. 

Today, Buttercup and I pretended to be a bird, a frog, a butterfly, and we learned to do plies.  Motherhood is the most beautiful excuse for learning to pretend again.

We took our first ballet class today, and Buttercup is officially enrolled in the Academy of Ballet.  I am thrilled.

The class was wonderful.  The teacher taught the little ones how to sit properly for posture and balance, she began foot exercises with them to start strengthening their little toes for tip-toeing about, and curtsying, and how to pirouette….It was so beautiful.

Personally, I’m so absolutely blissful about doing this with her.  The teacher is the most gracious beautiful woman, and I’m thinking - if for nothing else, something she focuses on is how to carry yourself, and it’s a good thing for a girl to know how to do.  I get to do all the exercises with her, and it felt glorious spinning, bending, and reaching.  I cannot wait to take her shopping for her outfit :)