Goodbye Baby

My kids are growing.

Isaac has lost two more of his teeth. And is 3/4 my height.

Rosalie up and decided to start riding a two wheeler; In January!

Oliver has started full-day kindergarten and is loving it. I have never seen such a determined-to-keep-up fella. (still uber snuggly:)

I can't believe I'm already saying this, but as they bounce off to school or next door to hang out with their neighbour friends, I realize they need me to start letting go. 

I want them to stay home and colour and play with playdough...they want to understand robotics and tell me about the latest dance moves and peer-jokes. I suppose I could have kept them home and do more to delay the inevitable 'Growing Up', but with this comes bittersweet joy and pride at the little people they are becoming.

They are excellent, kind, and respectful students and classmates.

They are thoughtful and ask deep questions and give great answers.
They are able to communicate with all sorts of age groups.

They are willing to start doing their part in acts of service for others.

And a lot of the reason this is happening is because I've had to let them do more than I may want.

Like have a playdate with a new neighbour-friend.

Like let them go to a 'regular' school...

Bring them in circumstances where there are people who are 'different' from them.

Invite a variety of people into our space, from infancy to elderly!

Giving them boredom which leads to creativity and not offering immediate solutions to simple problems.
This stuff is hard to do for me, as a parent, a mother. In fact sometimes I do catch myself still 'babying' them. In part because it's just faster and easier, but a lot because they are growing up too fast and becoming too independent. And sometimes I still want to provide everything. I want just the 5 of us to be enough.

But that's not reality. God created family to grow. to be the foundation, yes, but to grow out of that into the world! Soon they will favour a phone call from a friend to reading a story with me.

Soon they will cry about the misfortune of another than about not getting their favourite snack.

Soon my Sunday-school answers will not satisfy the craving of their souls for deeper truth and connection Jesus is calling them individually into..and it might not look how I imagine or think it should!

And I know there will be times they will break my heart with their independence and decisions...but I can only pray that those first foundational 5 years of their lives have been a good start. Have developed strong, healthy roots. I sound like I'm already packing their bags! But I guess lately as I settle into a new personal routine of 'free time' and starting a part time job, when I used to spend 14 hours a day with them, I have realized how fast time does go by, and how I need to take a deep breath and move forward with them and their own new stages of life! Exciting times ahead for the Buckley family....