Last year we entered into a new stage of life with Cassidy off to Kindergarten and this year brings with it another new stage- both my girls are going to school!
Today was Cassidy's first day of Grade 1. We got to go meet her teacher last night and see her classroom and get all her school supplies unpacked so this morning, even though I wanted to take her, she got on the bus and off she went! I'm pretty certain she will love going to school every day though I'm expecting a very tired girl for the first couple of weeks.
Aviannah is very excited because she gets to go to school this year too! Last year she found it hard watching her big sister get on the bus and not getting to go herself. She won't get to ride a bus this year but she does get the special privilege of going to the brand new school in Warman. We registered her for the Pre-K program. She starts next Wednesday and goes four afternoons a week for 3 hours. That's a lot of school for such a little girl but I am positive she will love it! We got to see her classroom and meet her teacher last week and Avi ran right up to her teacher and gave her a big hug. The other exciting part is that Levi is in her class! I'll still be babysitting him and so that works well all around! They are going to be quite the pair and I hope they won't get into too much mischief together!
With Avi and Levi in school together, that gave me four afternoons of no children in my house, and so I decided to look for another daycare kid. There are so many ladies that do daycare in Warman and I felt it was going to be next to impossible to find someone. A teacher I used to work with recommended me to her friend who was looking for daycare and we met and on both ends we felt like it was a perfect fit! I will have a new little guy who is 2.5 coming 3 days a week and his sister who starts Kindergarten this year will come every other Friday. It could not be a more perfect arrangement! They have come one day already and they have fit in perfectly with everybody and I have very high hopes that we will have a great year!
I'm also still teaching piano two evening a week, so life is definitely going to be busy but I am so incredibly thankful to have found jobs that allow me to stay at home with my girls. In 2 years Avi will be in Kindergarten and then I plan to go back to work as an E.A, and I know those years are going to fly by! I've been home with my kids (well, it started out as just one kid) since the beginning of 2012 and I can't believe that this stay-at-home mom gig is soon coming to an end. I know I will always look back on these years as being the hardest, busiest, yet most fulfilling years of my life. The opportunity to spend every day being present with my kids, playing and learning and snuggling and crying and laughing and yelling and singing... these are just priceless times!
I often hear moms of older kids saying they can't believe how fast the time has gone and I pay close attention whenever I hear those words. They remind me to stop and savor the moment, even if someone just peed on the floor for the 5th time or someone else drew on the walls, one day I will look back and maybe wish for smudged fingerprints on the window or to be picking up toys for the millionth time. It's so hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that Cassidy's days at home with just me are done. I get her on the weekends, and evenings, and that's it. And while I'm so thrilled for this next new stage and thrilled for her because she loves school, part of me just wants to pull out all her baby pictures and spend hours looking at them and crying because wasn't that just yesterday?
I suppose that's just motherhood in a nutshell. Having your heart being tugged in two different directions all the time. It's amazing watching them grow up and it's terrible watching them grow up, all at the same time. I am #blessed (sorry, couldn't help it!)
