Where oh Where Did My Baby Go?

  Where in the world did this toddler come from?  I honestly don't know what's happened.  After our big summer adventure I took a small break from blogging because life literally exploded in September.
   Our very tiny church merged with a much larger one and finding my place in this new family is proving to be quite difficult.  I'm still not sure where I'm being called to serve.  Hopefully I'll get some sign soon.  Then the new school year began and The State of Florida being so wise decided that because of poor test scores (on a test that was being thrown out and a new one was being instituted) that our school needed to teach the kids an extra hour every day. But don't worry.  First graders are really good at handling three and a half hours of Reading.  I know it doesn't sound it but I've actually assimilated to the schedule but I feel so sorry for the tired first graders who don't get home until almost dark and that bit of time I lose with my own son.  As you can tell work politics have severely dragged morale down, even though this year I have one of the best behaved and cohesive groups ever in my whole teaching career.  That coupled with the fact that I've had so much parent support this year has blessed me far beyond what I can even express.  The children and parents literally have saved my sanity.
   I don't know how it happened but somehow I blinked and now it's December.  It's Christmas day in fact and my baby boy has disappeared.  He's all toddler now.  Everyone says it.  No one can believe it.  But let me tell you I have food splattered on the walls, punctured feet from stepping on Legos, ( which let me tell you is the worst pain in this world.)  and a much smaller gut from chasing that monkey all over the house.  I am telling you that it wasn't nearly this much of a workout when he was just a tiny babe.  When Rory's dunking things in the toilet, pulling whole boxes of cheerios or bags of cheese off the counters, or throwing Bella's dog food into her water dish to watch it puff up like a blowfish,  I just want to channel my Fat Amy and say with conviction, "Oh no.  Don't sign me up for Cardio."
  But like all parents before me, we summon that inner strength and go with it, because I know I'm going to blink again and he's going to be 16 and I can only pray to God that I won't be still swaddling him.  (which we are still trying to ween him off of.)
  It's been a semi-quiet Christmas with just the three of us this year.  We're used to the hustle and bustle of flights and family,  blizzards and nonstop running around.  But I can't tell you how thankful I am for this family that I've been blessed with.  I'm thankful that God sent his own son today so that mine can be free.  How can it be any better than that?