Bitter and Sweet

My sister just sent an email about the bitter sweet reality of kids growing up. I'm about to echo that. LOL!

Today is the first day of High School for my daughter. She isn't thrilled and I'm reading that is "scared". But then again, maybe reality has sunk into her, too. HS isn't all fun and games, it's a LOT of work. She is tall, elegant and beautiful. She carries herself with confidence, even if she's lacking it inside. She's smart and determined. This year she'll be on swim team. Awesome! And she's got the best job on campus, working with computers and for a peach of a boss. She'll get to be with her friends more than last year...

And today is my youngest child's first day of 6th grade. Ohmy! He has grown a LOT this summer, physically and I hope in other ways. I hope this growing means that there has been a decided shift in his brain to match the one in his voice. He's such a sweet, smart kid. And he inherited his mother's hyper-distractability and overwhelm. ;) Ohhh, I hope this year is better for him. I hope he's matured enough to handle the homework, the projects AND the social part. (He also inherited by social ease. LOL! NO problem there!)

I've been mothering for half my life, exactly. The oldest has moved out and is married now. I look at him, whenever he's around and wonder. How on EARTH did that happen!? He is incredible. He astonishes me! I LOVE to be around him and see again who he has become. Wasn't it just yesterday that I held him in my arms, there in the rocking chair in the house he was born in? I remember looking at his tiny little face in the pre-dawn hours and seeing the MAN in his face. The man he would become. OHMY!!! Now, he IS that man. I'm amazed.

Our second son will always be a special part of my life. He'll probably always live with us because of his medical and developmental issues. He's my Always Kid. He's helpful, generally agreeable, quiet and easily entertains himself. He has a job 4 mornings a week that he enjoys. He has friends at work, friends on the bus, friends at his dad's work. He makes friends where ever he goes. :) Like his mom. And he amazes me. I'm so blessed to have him be my son.

We thought we were done having kids. We were busy raising Kid #1 and Kid #2. and then... HELLO!!!! SURPRISE!!! Here came our daughter.

I'm so glad we have a girl. Girls are so different from boys. The way they think even. LOL! Yesterday when we went to do the final part of getting her into school, we saw this boy with huge black caterpiller eyebrows. She looked at me, to see if I had noticed. I looked at her to see if she's noticed. No words were exchanged but our eyes connected and we grinned and giggled that we were, once again, on the same wave length. Ohhhh! Being on the same wave length with your children is a MARVELOUS thing. Rare, at time, and oh so sweet. LOL! AND she'll learning to drive. OHMY! She will be a good driver. I just know it. She careful, observent and gaining confidence daily.

And then we're back again to the caboose child, our youngest son. He is a wonder. High energy and yet can't seem to move a muscle when asked to do something that doesn't agree with him. LOL! I guess he's just a typical pubescent boy. Zits, a crackly voice, the whole thing. He's cute and handsome all at the same time. He continues to remind me of his oldest brother, there is a strong resemblence and yet... he's his own self. If it has to do with a computer, he's all over it. If you can't find him or hear him, it's because he's somewhere working on his computer. Sure, he plays games and stuff, but most of the time he's working on his website or figuring out some program or... geeky stuff. If I have a problem with my electronic devices, I call my youngest. Yesterday he was very grumpy while we were shopping. It took a while, but the thing that was bugging him was that he didn't fit into any catagory in the clothes department. He's too big for the boy's clothes and too small for the men's clothes. LOL! Well, we shifted up. Now his shirts are men's smalls. Another LEAP toward adulthood.

So, here I am. Here we are. The beginning of a new school year. The start of High School, swim team, men's sizes clothes, 6th grade... We're shifting gears and revving up, rearing to go. And yet, here I sit. Enjoying the emptiness, the quietness of the house and yet... *sigh* Wow. They grew up so fast!