Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!

Once again, the beginning of another school year is just around the corner. Audriana will be joining the 2-3 year old class. . . also known as the "Turtles."  We just found out tonight that her teachers from last year will be tackling these rambunctious shorty pants people.  About half her class will be made up of her friends from last year.  It will be nice for her to have the familiarity of her teachers and friends.

Haakon will be in the 1-2 year old class or the "Ducks."  I just met his teacher tonight and she seemed lovely.  The class size will be pretty small and I think that it will give Haakon the opportunity to make friends without his sister and test out the waters on life on his own.  I know that Audriana's teachers are curious to see how Audriana and Haakon will interact when the Ducks and Turtles spend time together on the playground.  I am, too!  And for the first time since birth, Espen will get the chance to spend some one on one time with his mommy without having to share her with anyone.  We are both looking forward to it.

I know that I am voluntarily choosing to send my little babies off to school at such a tender age.  This was not a decision that I made lightly.  I know that I often tell my friends jokingly that I can't wait for the few hours of being free from having to tell the kids to close the fridge, whip up a gourmet meal on request (or demand...depending on how you look at it!), referee another toy dispute, chase them around the house to expend energy, make the superwoman run to the bathroom with Audriana to avoid a potty accident, and a million other things.  But honestly, the hours away from them are meaningless if at the end of those few hours I didn't know that I would get to grab them up again.  The time spent away from me is also wonderful time spent nurturing their gifts and talents in an environment that I cannot always provide: with their peers....a nice bonus.  

I read somewhere that you know that you've done a good job as a parent if, at the end of 18 years together, your child leaves the nest.  How come, despite having a lot of years left before the inevitability, I know that I won't be ready?  

It is so hard to believe that these babies are no longer babies, but little eaglets yearning to stretch their little wings out a little further and further.  I swear it was just yesterday that each of them came into our lives and made our life a little bit more perfect with just their presence.  I remember taking Audriana's first day of school picture last year and seeing that my baby girl was no longer a baby, but that she had turned into a little girl before my eyes.  My eyes welled with tears when I came into that realization--as it is now, when I think about how my heart ached at that moment.   I hope that as I take Haakon's first day of school picture this year, I will be ready to see a little boy in the photograph instead of the little baby I once held in my arms.  Though some how, I doubt I will be.  

As a parent you try to capture every wonderful little moment of your time together...racing to savor it.  Because you know that if you don't, the moments simply whizz by and slip through your fingers like the grains of sand falling from your hand.  Then, with another blink of the eye, the children suddenly are ready to spread their wings and fly off into the big world.  And yet you wonder, where has the time gone?  Until that time, I think I will just hold on to each of my babies a little bit tighter and snuggle a little bit longer.  

So to another fun and successful school year.  May there be only smiles, happy anticipation, and many less tears shed on this year's first day than last by the children . . . and their mother.