Magical Shoes

I can't believe how quickly my babies have grown. Haven just started Kindergarten, ballet (this will be her third yr.) and basketball for the first time. After a rough start to school she's starting to get the routine now, which has seriously encroached upon her beauty sleep. :) (As this girl was used to sleeping in until 9 or 10 or whenever she felt like gracing us with her sunshiny presence, which was been a little less than angelic as of late. :) She has always been my night owl. Even with a bed time of 8:30 we'll sometimes hear her singing in bed to herself with her soft, sweet, & high pitched voice for at least an hour sometimes 2 before she finally drifts off to sleep. I just love her. It's breaking my heart with how fast she's growing up, but leaving me excited and smiling at how proud I am of her as she becomes her own little person reaching all these milestones in such a short amount of time. She's been practicing her dribble, which is one of the cutest things of all time as it bounces off her toes about once every 8 bounces, but she is a determined little bug. She's in half day kindergarten but loves that her and four of her besties get a few extra hours together as my friends and I each get to carry on the curriculum at home. They love their kinder co-op. It's so nice having such great friends.

Drake's been potty trained for over 8 months even while having to get creative during his spica casted experience. He is such a champ, and I was not about to have my potty trained boy regress to diapers, which we were told was our only option, so we figured it out together. (& His doc said in all his years it was the cleanest spica he'd ever seen and asked our advice on how it was done. :) As much as it was a trying experience I'm so grateful that I was able to see a different side to my baby boy. I saw him overcome his frustration of being immobile & unable to move while being couch-bound together for the first few weeks as my hair always had to be within reach. It's his comfort mechanism, he likes to twirl my hair. It's wierd but it's his thing and I still let him twirl it because despite how nappy it's made my hair, it's a guarantee that I'll get a little snuggle from my busy boy for even a few seconds every few hours now that he's out of his cast. During those first few weeks in his cast prison though i couldn't deny him access to his one comfort so we became inseparable and I was able to get captured time with my usually very active boy that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Helping him overcome the pain, to getting ingenuitive in showing him that he could still use things to help him move in the cast like a mechanic's creeper, to watching him learn to walk with his lower body casted and then learning to walk again after the cast was removed and his largest muscles had atrophied. It was a beautifully horrific experience that I hope we never have to endure again but I came out of it realizing what a resilient, optimistic, and strong little man he is. Drake's speech is really coming along, we continue to work on some of his consonants as it's probably hard for others to understand. We however understand him great, and because of which, his temper tantrums are gone! I LOVE that! He is such a sweet and smart little boy and will be starting preschool in a few weeks. He continues to love having his friends over for co-op once a week and this evening will be his first TEEball practice. Where has the time gone?

Taking the kids to Sport Chalet and picking up the stuff they need ie.: baseball, tee, mitt, bat, mini basketball, and shoes it hit me; that my life or my Saturday's are never going to be the same... and I couldn't be happier about it. I am going to spend countless hours at practices and games watching my little loves as they learn motor skills and life's lessons on the court from people other than me, as I stand on the sideline. I think that has been the hardest pill for me to swallow with all these changes that have occurred this past month; that I'm no longer my babies' only teacher and coach. I'm not their entire world anymore though they'll always be mine. They are now learning from people other than me, and learning to implement what I can only hope that I've taught them. I wish so badly that I could always keep them protected from harsh comments, peer pressure, and feelings of inadequacy. Even though I realize that it's the tumbling of rocks that lead to the shaping of perfectly round ones. I just hope they know that I'll always be their number 1 fan and that I can be half as supportive as my parents, as well as Greg's, have always been of us in our endeavors. I always figured it would be hard watching your child step out on their own I just didn't realize how quickly they do. I realize they're not 18, they're 3 and 5 and in a different world than I knew at their age. I have never been more grateful for nurturing teachers, encouraging coaches or trustworthy friends. I guess I need to take to heart the lessons of sharing that I'm still teaching my little ones. Just as they hold onto their most prize possessions with white knuckles and clenched fists, I too need to learn to share my two greatest joys, my little lovebugs with our world. I need to let them get their footing on different ground, watch them make decisions both right and wrong, and smile as they learn the difference.