A Day in the Life: Shining Star

 there are no words to describe how proud i am that our oldest has officially "moved up" from middle school to high school.  he has grown so much since he first started in 5th grade.  i remember being so worried about him; how was he going to find his way around? how would he remember his locker combo?  ...well, i had every reason to worry.  his grades dipped for the first time in his school career; his teachers said he was unorganized.   lol, yet, somehow he was able to pull it all together and end his first year in stellar fashion.  after that, he was back on track.  he made high honor roll, was inducted into National Junior
Honor Society and made Student of the Month more times than i can count.  then he got to 8th grade.  dun dun duuuunnn...

though he has continued performing to high standards, he came up against his first real academic challenge - Advanced Science - Living Environment.  it was one of two 9th grade Regents courses that he took this year.  all of a sudden, it became apparent that his natural talent for getting good grades wasn't enough to get him through.  he actually had  to*gasp* study!!  i'm happy to say that, though it was a struggle for him, Tau came out triumphant.  not only did he start developing study habits, he also passed the Regents!!  wooohooo!!

there are many reasons why i'm happy.  besides the obvious reasons, i am ecstatic that Tau has learned that, when faced with a challenge, you don't turn and run -you face it head on, step by step.  this is only the first life challenge that he has really had to deal with so far, but the way he handled it has me confident that everything that my hubby and i (and the village that raises him) have instilled in him has stuck.  i celebrate him and all those who have helped to get him to this point - my husband, his grandparents, aunts and uncles (adopted and blood-related), his god-parents and all the rest of our family.  we couldn't have done it without you.  we should all be proud of our shining star.

PFM Confessional: sesheta speaks...True Love

this picture says so much about Tau's personality lmao

i may have always had a love affair with fashion and with color but my true love overshadows all those things. yes, there are things, rather people, that i love more.  my eldest son, Tau is one of these people.  he turned 14 today and, besides feeling overwhelmed by the idea of having  a full-fledged teenager, i am so proud to be his mommy.

Tau was born at a time when his dad and i were still finding out who we were; it was all around trial and error.  i read all the books you were supposed to in order to prepare for parenthood but any parent can tell you that all your questions never make it in the book.  so much about parenting is intuition and boundaries.  you have to know where you stand when it comes to any issue and then be willing to throw that out the window and revise it in a heartbeat.   though it is my most challenging role, it is also the most fulfilling.  being mom to Tau has taught me things that only he could teach me.  shoot... i am still learning as we speak! my biggest claim to fame was that, despite all of the mistakes that we have made, Tau is still alive and growing lol.  he is growing right before my eyes.  the scary part is that a lot of who he will be has already been formulated; the ground work has been already laid.  we have to hope that we have given him all the tools he will need to become the man he will be.  ... jeez, no pressure...  i know that we can dwell on all the things that we should have done differently, but there is a lot that we have done right.  Tau is a bright, funny, intelligent young man who is just stretching his wings.  now we have to be strong enough to let him fly.

happy earthday, Tau!!