Sunday morning making pancakes for the kids when suddenly there\u2019s a knock on the door. We never have morning visitors. Who could it be? We ran to the door to find a sweet neighbor asking if the kids can come out and play. This was a surprise for me because I can\u2019t really think of G and I as being old enough to run out of the house and play but it\u2019s happening. I had to take a moment and step back. The kids were excited to play but knew breakfast and morning routine needed to be completed before they went outside. I never saw them eat ALL of their breakfast so fast and brush their teeth without being told so quickly. They were growing up a little more right in front of me. How could this be?<\/p>\n
I looked back and they were fully dressed and out the front door. No longer did I need to sit on the stoop and watch them. They were gone. I could hear them from inside as they communicated with friends, made plans, created new games and had new ideas on the stoop. I just sat back comfortably in the air conditioned filled room with a cappuccino in hand and a smile on my face and took it all in.<\/p>\n
There was a shift. It had been coming. I was watching it happen but couldn\u2019t put it all together, at least not until this morning. I was no longer the mediator. I was no longer needed to open this or get that. I didn\u2019t need to watch them and just make sure they would be ok out there.<\/p>\n
All I had to do now is let them be. Sure I popped my head out from time to time to make sure I could see them when I no longer heard them on the stoop. I knew they were fine but I just needed to reassure myself that they were. They popped from stoop to stoop but never too far away. More neighbors joined them and soon there were a group of kids bonding and becoming friends not only neighbors.<\/p>\n
This morning\u2019s theme seemed to be Harry Potter. The wands came out. The character stickers were retrieved and the spell book was in hand. They had professors (Giovanni) teaching a class while the others listened. The roles were turned and things changed. It was interesting to listen to.<\/p>\n
This was it. I have two second graders starting school this week and they were surely acting the part.<\/p>\n
I will stop here as tears fill my eyes not only because I am a little sad that they are growing but also because I am so proud of them.<\/p>\n
This is motherhood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sunday morning making pancakes for the kids when suddenly there\u2019s a knock on the door. We never have morning visitors. Who could it be? We ran to the door to find a sweet neighbor asking if the kids can come out and play. This was a surprise for me because I can\u2019t really think of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/carasthoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/carasthoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/carasthoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carasthoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carasthoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=767"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/carasthoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":772,"href":"http:\/\/carasthoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions\/772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/carasthoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carasthoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carasthoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}