Growing up

We all know by now that these adorable little people we are so blessed to have call us mommy and daddy are the biggest time-suckers ever invented. It seems like yesterday they joined our family as itty bitty humans and tomorrow they are going to be taking on the world.

Or in this case, Kindergarten.

I am an emotional wreck over this whole kindergarten business – not because I am necessarily sad about it, but because MY ITTY BITTY HUMAN is going to be gone all day. Because once school starts, it doesn’t stop for a very long time. It’s the first step to college. She might have gotten bigger, but she’s still my itty bitty human. Watching her grow up has been the greatest joy – I had no idea how awesome this journey of motherhood could be (how could you know beforehand?!) and it keeps getting better. Different, harder sometimes, but better.

The whole starting school thing has me wanting to latch on for dear life and then about 10x tighter to every moment with her since I get so few of them. Like how she wears silly pj combinations to bed which typically consist of a tutu and some kind of head wear (a hat, pink bunny ears, a tiara). As much as it drives me up a wall now, I’m sure I’ll miss the way she stalls at night and whines at me when she wants my attention. Okay, maybe I won’t so much miss the whining part as much as the attention seeking part. I love to spy on her while she plays – her imagination has always been fascinating to me and it still is. To watch her create stories and scenarios, crafts and pictures, getting her thoughts out into the universe however she can is pretty cool. She drew a picture today of our family “in the good old days” when Aleesia was a baby, she told me because Aleesia “didn’t take my toys then but I still love her anyway.” 

When Gianna tells a story she doesn’t leave out any detail, real or imaginary. My favorite story lately has been about when she went fishing with her Papa. “We went fishing, I had my Barbie fishing wand and Papa put on the worm ‘cuz it was gross. Then you have to watch the bobber, you know, the decoration on the fishing wand, until it sinks under the water. And when it sinks you have to real it in fastfastfast. then Papa takes the fish off!”

I hope she always beams so bright when she accomplishes something she tries hard at. And that she stays so close with her Papa.

Gianna gets really nervous when she knows change is coming so we are trying to keep the whole school business low-key and no big deal but she asks almost every day about it. It’s nice to know exactly when she starts (it’s actually right when we get back from vacation) so we have sort of “time mark” to help us. She is excited but the unknowns sort of swirl in her mind sometimes it seems so we just try to answer whatever questions she has as best we can and reassure her that it’s still summer and to have fun! Sometimes though, I think I need the reassurance as much as she does that it’s still summer and to enjoy it!

It’s sometimes hard to watch your itty bitty human grow up, but this doesn’t feel hard as much as it feels likes it’s the ending and beginning of an era. The end of her being under our protection full time and the beginning of the school days where she might learn more about the world then we are ready for her too. It’s going to be great, hard sometimes I am sure, but it’s still summer time and we are going to soak in as much fun as we possibly can!

Before I know it I am going to be crying my eyes out every other day because my itty bitty human is going off to college and kissing her on the cheek before work in the morning as she sleeps in her tutu with her bunny ears on is going to be such a distant (fond) memory. They really do grow up in the blink of an eye, huh?