Preschool Moms

I missed every single parent event for Riley's preschool, thus far.  For orientation and visitation day, we were in California for Brandon's wedding; for open house night, I was horribly sick and unable to speak with some throat virus.  And when I drop Riley off and pick her up, I always have Noelle (and now Brooks!), so if I get to talk with other parents, I often have to race off to keep Well-Well from dousing herself in the drinking fountain or running off. 

So I've been really sad that I haven't gotten to know many of the other moms in preschool.  But things have been looking up (at least slightly!) in that category, as of late.  First, this weekend, Karina had a birthday party at McDonalds.  I got to meet Joy and Stephen and their adorable and super-sweet family of five kids.  As I monitored Noelle and Riley in the playzone, I got to witness what a beautiful family they are.  One of my favorite things in the world is when siblings love on and look out for each other.  I saw plenty of that on Saturday.  My favorite part: when two of the older sisters were hoisting Malachi, the 2.5-year-old, up into the playzone, so he could take part in the fun.

Then, yesterday, we got there a little early, and Christy (who I had liked instantly upon meeting her) was there, too.  Jake is in Riley's class, and Christy has a 6-week-old, Louie.  So we will get to see her again in preschool when the little guys grow up. :)  Anyway, Noelle clearly has taken a liking to Christy, too, because she ran up to her and gave her a big hug.  She was handsomely rewarded with a rubber fishy ring that she toted around with her for the rest of the day.  Yep.  Noelle LOVES fish.  She'll even sing the "I love fish" song if you ask.

Then there's Katie.  She has an Etsy shop called Tuscanycreative which has some AMAZING handmade toys and accessories.  A couple of my favorites are the finger puppets

and the mama and baby owls. 

And look at this handstitched nativity set!  Wow!!!

But here's the hilarious thing.  She had actually randomly contacted me via Etsy a few months ago, before preschool started.  And yesterday, she offered to give us one of her bibs and told me about Tuscanycreative.  At the time, I thought, "Huh.  That sounds familiar."  But my mind's been a little fuzzy lately, so I didn't say anything.  I came home, checked my Etsy account, and sure enough!  Katie and I have talked through Etsy!  Ha! 

And she told me that Erin, another mom from the class, also had an Etsy shop, YOUniqueBaby.  Naturally, I had to check her goodies out, too. :)  I heart this blanket!

I mean-- how snuggly does that look?? 

So the long and the short of it is this: these moms are amazing, and I'm so excited to get to know them (and others!) more!