Photo A Day, Day 3: The Letter "P"

Considering that it is only a few days after Halloween, it’s practically a foregone conclusion that the subject of a photographic assignment involving the letter “P” would be a pumpkin. And that was my initial plan. After all, I carved two pretty spectacular looking pumpkins this year. And said pumpkins are sitting on my front step, artistically decorated with a drop or two of rain from earlier this morning and mottled with sunlight filtering through the few leaves still remaining on the trees. But as I was picking up my children’s toys on my way to grab my camera, I came across a different subject that I thought was even more appropriate for the theme.

Not only is it literally the letter “P,” but it is also a Puzzle and a Piano. And if we want to get really crazy about the theme, it was also a Present from a Pal! A friend of mine gave it to my daughter for her birthday.

I love this puzzle because, when she first got it, my daughter was just barely beginning to learn her letters, so she only recognized a few. But over the past three months, she has learned the entire alphabet (and she’ll sing you the song to prove it), she recognizes every picture and will tell you the letter that each one begins with, and she can put the entire puzzle together without assistance in the blink of an eye.

This puzzle reminds me how quickly she’s learning and changing. Both of my kids are. As we celebrated my son’s 4^th birthday yesterday, I reflected on how much he’s changed in the past year. How much have I learned and grown over the past 12 months? Not noticeably. But within those same 12 months, my son has learned to read, to dress himself without help, to use the potty (mostly), to say “please” and “thank you” without prompting, to use scissors (and more importantly, to use scissors SAFELY), to ride a bike, to swim without water wings, and to write his own name. And in the same 12 months, my daughter has learned to talk, to run, to do a somersault, to ride a tricycle, to put on her own shoes, and to color inside the lines (mostly).

So do you know what other “P” word this picture makes me think of? “Proud”!!