Preschool and Social Media

I got a little choked up this morning at Super Coop's preschool open house.

And not entirely because he is growing up WAY.TOO.FAST.

And not entirely because he has THE. MOST. AMAZING. TEACHERS. in all the world. But seriously, he does. Is it possible to fall in love with sweet people any faster than I have with Ms. Catherine and Ms. Whitney?

We have always been blessed with the most incredible caregivers for Coop. Ms. Lori is an absolute one of a kind. She was, and still is, a rock for our family. I handed little 13 pound Coop over to her at 12 weeks and never worried about him for one second. She dealt with us when Chris lost his hair and I lost my mind. Through it all, she loved on us all like crazy and showered Coop with more love than he could handle. We moved and Ms. Emily came into our lives (and home) and loves Coop like he was one of her own. He goes to sleep and wakes up saying "Miss Emily coming today, Mama?" She wakes her TWO cutie patooties up at the butt crack of dawn, drives a long, long way and is outnumbered by sweet (but rowdy) little boys three days a week. Having Holden and Rylan as super buddies is just too cool.

Remember that whole 3 month streak where we got the silent tap or page during worship to go and wrangle Cooper? Remember when he cried all over the felt Jesus and dropped  threw his Goldfish crackers because he couldn't handle us leaving him? Enter: need for a little healthy dose of preschool. Circle time and centers and chapel, sign us up.

I was pulling through the Chick-fil-a drive through crying into my sweet tea cup this morning, thanking God for allowing me the opportunity to be with him more. Signing him up for church preschool would have been next to impossible, had I stayed on full time at CHOA. Working that much was fine and dandy. It really was. But being able to be an active part of his little life just tickles me silly. I have an overwhelming feeling of gratitude that he gets to participate in such an amazing program and that I well, get to be his mama.

I've had an off week with "social media". Do y'all ever get that way? Like one of those sit at the kitchen table and wring my hands over where our generation is headed. Old soul. I know it. I am addicted to Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Blogspot, Words with Friends. I really am. I love keeping up with so many sweet folks and spending hours pinning incredible homemade dinners while Coop eats peanut butter and jelly for supper.

It's all super duper but this week in particular, I began to realize how 1) I miss real conversation 2) As parents, we are too often guilty of texting and checking ____ (insert addiction of choice) while missing crucial moments in our children's lives. Cooper almost fell in the bathtub because I was busy pinning a homemade ruffle Christmas tree skirt pin, y'all. A Christmas tree skirt. No lie. 3) Comparision is the thief of joy and social media is one giant pin board begging you to compare yourself to others. 4) Everyone has an opinion (always have had, I know it), social media just allows us all to lambast opinions on everything from breastfeeding to politics to chicken and sometimes, it's not because I don't value everyone's opinions (isn't that what's so fun about social media?), it's just I just don't always wanna be bombarded with information overload. Opinionated about opinions. (Pardon me, it's just the Clomid talkin darlin.) And most importantly (yes, I am still ranting about social media through social media) 5) how stinkin' accountable we must be for our words. I'm serious. I think sometimes we forget just how impactful we can be. I witnessed two situations this week where people I love were significantly impacted through social media. Status updates can be almost as much fun as eating cotton candy and corn dogs and going for a spin on the tiltawhirl but I think we should be called to a higher standard about how we choose to broadcast ourselves. I had to stop and ask myself if the good Lord called me home right now, would I absolutely streak nekkid up to heaven proud of the imprint I have left?

Nothing says it better than an e-card.

Cheers to modern technology, y'all, cheers!