Transitions

The past couple of weeks have been filled with transitions for our family. As a teacher, summer has always been a time for me to refocus my energy on family, friends, and all of the things I love doing but never have the time for during the school year. Though I'm not sure any of us truly realize it yet, this summer is a bit different. After teaching ESL full-time at Northdale Middle School for four years, I resigned to devote more time to Sophia. I absolutely love being home with Sophia and having my family be the center of my day. I have also been energized to do more writing and am looking forward to finding some professionally satisfying part-time work once summer is over.

I must say, I think Sophia enjoys having her mami all to herself during the day. She is also enjoying having a big girl bed all to herself. (Well, she'd actually rather share it with Mami and Papi, but we're trying to get her to see the perks of having her very own bed :) ) Sophia has made the transition to her big girl bed (aka Papi's old childhood bed) pretty easily. There were even a few blissful days when we thought she'd just always sit up in her bed and wait for us to come in to get her when she was ready to get up. I'm afraid to say that that is no longer the case. In fact, I woke up in the middle of the night a couple of nights ago to find Sophia standing next to my bed. She must not have even made a peep, because I always hear her through the monitor. I guess she sneakily crawled out of bed and up the stairs through the dark to find our room. Being a bit surprised and a little confused, I just picked her up and put her into our bed for the rest of the night. She didn't complain.

Besides these two larger transitions, Sophia goes through numerous "mini" transitions every day. One minute she is an absolute spit-fire, determinedly doing things her way with little regard for the rest of us. But then the next minute, she becomes the most tenderhearted little girl I've ever known. You wouldn't guess it from all her serious poses, but Sophia's smile is so bright and her heart so open and receiving. She is our hot-tempered, sweet little darling and we absolutely adore her!