Change is in the Air

The breeze blowing in my open bedroom window was chilly this morning for the first time since spring. Bathing suits are on clearance, I'm getting back-to-school sale email notifications. Sure, the average temperatures for August are still in the 80s here, it's still light late into the evening, the trees are full of glossy green leaves. But change is in the air.

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Days go by where I don't actually change a poopy diaper. Brighton is virtually potty training herself at the moment, and my boy has reached the point where he'd rather have privacy than help in the bathroom. I wonder how much longer I'll need a diaper genie. Change is in the air.

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I'm browsing toddler bedding and strategizing Brighton's move to a big-girl bed, wondering how on earth it could go as easily as it did with Pacey (Answer: it won't) But she's ready - she loves Pacey's bed and, quite honestly, I'd like to get her transitioned before she's actually able to let herself out of her room. In the space of two years we'll have gone from a two-crib household to a two-crib-in-the-garage household. Change is in the air.

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I'm filling out school forms for two kids this year. Two sets of immunization dates to tediously transfer from card to paper. Two parent orientation nights to attend. Two miniature backpacks to purchase (Elmo is SO last year). In just over a month I'll put my nearly-five-year-old firstborn onto a big yellow school bus...I've dropped him off countless times but I've never sent him off into the world like this without me. I'll be spending two mornings a week away from my little girl, while she learns and plays and picks up germs. Change is in the air.

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It was a little lonely when I first started staying home with the kids. Neither really had any verbal language to speak of, and I spent a lot of time narrating my day just to hear something. Now they talk to me from the backseat, they ask for specific snacks, they tell me ALLLLL about it when they are displeased with something. Brighton has started a litany of delay tactics at bedtime: "more songs, mama", "boooooook, mama" "carry you, mama" (how she asks to be held). When we brush his teeth at night Pacey counts to ten along with me, in English AND in Spanish. Words are in the air.

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I'm not historically a big fan of change. One of the best things about having kids, though, is that I've learned that change doesn't have to represent intimidating unknowns. Change can be growth and progress and enhancement. I look forward to bedding in our new routines this fall, to getting to spend some time with each of my kids on their own while the other is at school. Seeing them absorbing knowledge and making friends and extending their worlds just a little further outside our house and our family. Change is in the air, and it's good.