What’s Next?

As I think all of you know, my kids are growing up.  I’m not sure how quickly you think they are growing from your perspective, just looking at photos, etc. but for me lately, it certainly seems like the Grow-O-Meter is set at “Warp Speed”.

The B Man will be 9 years old very soon.  I remember the age of nine really well for myself.  It was great because it was before I hit puberty and I still felt like a kid.  I used to play Cabbage Patch dolls with my neighbor friend who was about 4 years younger than me and I believe it actually snowed in Austin the year I was nine and I thought that was SO awesome!  I am truly excited for him to be this age but also cannot believe I am already here with my first baby.  He is my little soccer “star” and he’s also my emotional mirror, which can be a not-so-good things sometimes.  But he is smart and imaginative and funny too.  I think nine is going to be awesome.

G is starting to read.  Slowly but surely and he blows me away with his love for arts and crafts and dancing and well, sometimes he scares the you-know-what out of me with his antics and daring ways.  Kindergarten has really helped him blossom and become more of his own little guy, instead of just hanging out in the shadow of his older brother (all though he still loves Legos just as much as him!).  I enrolled him in The Little Gym for an after school class and he went for the first time this week and had a great time.  I hope it will help him get some of his energy out and maybe he’ll learn to skillfully jump and land on both feet. 😉

And of course K, well, she’s as precocious as they come and just in the last few weeks Tim and I look at each other and say, “Where did the big girl come from?”  It truly baffles us.  She talks about her little girl friends at school a lot and her “best” friends and oh my gosh the “Girl” stuff in starting already.  How does this happen SO young?  I guess it is just innate.  But man, so soon?  She has a definite opinion about clothes and shoes also and she loves to copy G and taunt him too.  She and B have a special thing going on, maybe it has to do with being the odd-numbered kids.  It’s pretty darn cute whatever it is.

I’m reflecting on all of this partly because I have a couple of things going on in my head right now for how our family is going to grow (no! not by people!) and change mentally, spiritually and even physically.

Much of this starts with me, of course, the matriarch of this little family of 5, the ones I share a nest with.  Each of my children are quite different than their siblings, even though they’ve come from the same gene pool.  One may (and does) have different needs in one area than the other and this is becoming more apparent as they get older (and I get somewhat wiser).

So I am here wondering – what is next?  For me and for them.

Me thinks some changes are brewing, some that I may not even be fully aware of yet.  Some decisions need to be made – hard ones and easy ones, but they still need to be made all the same.

And no matter what, the kids just keep on growing and changing.  Nothing can stop the passage of time, that’s for sure.

And just like that a new season is upon us again…