Vacation! and Fairy Houses

Last week was my first full week of vacation. My part-time job as assistant preschool teacher has ended and now I am officially and indefinitely on "vacation", meaning that I will not be driving to another location to earn money that I will then immediately turn over to the day care.  I really enjoyed teaching last year (after a 2 year hiatus) but I have to say that I am excited to begin this next phase of full time SAH (stay at home) mommy-hood. I am hoping to stay home with "Little-it" for at least a year but will maybe teach an art class here and there at Fiddlehead (where the preschool was) , when I get antsy to do something other than mothering.  Being with 2.5 year old Addie full-time last week was an absolute joy. I am in constant awe of her vocabulary, drive, determination and creativity and am so excited for the many adventures to come this summer.

We took our first adventure of the week to Mackworth Island to visit the Fairy Houses. This island, across a causeway from Falmouth (near Portland),  is beautiful and has a 1.25 mile trail that goes around the perimeter of the island (we did not do the whole loop, but maybe someday). Addie was a trooper and walked much farther than she normally does, only needing me to carry her the last little bit (but this is getting exponentially more difficult as I get bigger!) Addie enjoyed not only looking at the Fairy houses but also drawing circles around her feet in the dirt path and declaring them "fairy house circles". We have not really talked about Fairies at all, so I found this pretty interesting! After looking at the Fairy houses we began the walk back and Addie needed me to carry her. That is until we heard the group of school kids heading towards us down the path. Addie then wanted to be put down so that she could walk. She walked proudly past all of the 1st or 2nd graders and then after they were out of sight requested that I pick her up again. Wow!