Well, for our 10 year anniversary, Robert and I were not feeling comfortable about just up and leaving Mary for a vacation together so we made Opryland Hotel our "Love Shack" for a weekend while Mary stayed at Aunt Nancy's!!!!! Wow - we didn't know how that would go but we made it a point to be close by in case Aunt Nancy had to deliver our little package to the hotel to stay with us.Baby girl did GREAT! She loves her Aunt Nancy and LOVES cousin, Jacob who hung out with her too! We are so grateful for the relationship that Mary is developing with her Aunt Nancy, cousin Jacob (I have officially dubbed him now as Mary's "Bodyguard"!) - as well as the rest of the family. She just lights up a room everywhere she goes and we are so blessed to have such a sparkle in our lives! SO - Mama and Dada got the romantic weekend all to themselves and Mary spent a great weekend with Aunt Nancy........who has made herself available for future sleepovers in which Mama and Dada are soooo gonna take her up on it! By the way - dig the awesome jumper Nancy made for Mary!!!!
Next, MARY STARTS PRESCHOOL!!!! Holy Moley, it's only been 8 months (8 MONTHS?!?!?!) and our baby girl is going to preschool 5 days a week for about 6 hours a day... Dang - what in the wide, wide world of sports do 3 year olds DO for 6 hours????
Anyway, her day will consist of social skills, speech therapy, whatever it is they teach 3 year olds as applicable to preparing them for higher levels of education AND she will have a hearing impaired educator to round out this experience! She has an amazing team and we are SO excited that Mary will be around and exposed to more children on a consistent basis - I can tell sometimes that she gets a little lonely for someone her own age so I think this will alleviate most of that! 
The administrator explained to me that she placed Mary in a specific classroom as there were two other very "chatty" little girls! She felt they would be very good language models for Mary (party on!) and she also cautioned me that one of them had a very strong southern drawal! We figured anyway that Mary would have a southern accent just because she's in the greatest southern state anyway and hey - I don't care what her accent is - as long as she's speaking english and she's very chatty!!!! The only drawback is that Mama's separation anxiety is wrecking havoc in my heart! I was grateful that the administrator has arranged for Mary and I to hang out at school in the class she will be attending before she actually starts - I don't want to just drop her off and leave her shellshocked at a place she's never been. Everyone agrees its a good plan - and I have faith it will help tremendously in the transition!Good things to come this year as Mary's world is ever expanding and our life is now more cohesive as a family with somewhat of a routine now! Thanks be to God, thanks for our family and for Mary's new preschool!!!!
