Back to School

I have to be honest. All those times when I wistfully reflected on "how time flies" and "how quickly they grow up," I didn't really believe it. Most of the time for me, parenting seems to creep forward imperceptibly. Maybe it's because I still see the 2-year-olds inside my now 4-year-olds, or maybe because they're twins I'm more thankful than sad when they hit milestones (they can now buckle themselves into their car seats? Awesome! Bring it on!), or maybe because I (luckily) get to spend so much time with them I don't notice the changes, but I'm rarely caught up in nostalgia for the baby or toddler years. Sometimes, I'm embarrassed to say, I will time to move faster (we can be done with night terrors any time now, thank you very much). 

But the other night, as I sat watching Z & N fall asleep after the first day of school, their skinny tan legs akimbo on the sheets, my heart felt a little heavy. Just for a moment, I got a feeling that I would soon know the phrase "how time flies" much more intimately. Pre-K will give way to Kindergarten and elementary school and after-school activities and sleepovers and their own sets of friends and their own rooms (if they're lucky) and hours spent off by themselves doing lord only knows (reading, if either is anything like me). And I am beyond excited about all of that, I really am, but a little nervous. And a little happy that parenting won't always feel so interminable, and a little sad. Hurry up and slow down now time, please. 

Heading off to Pre-K at Pine Cobble School