Maligro Mania: October already?!

Why does time fly so quickly and then stand still at other moments? I've been asking Tagen & Aveda if they could just stop growing already and stay little forever. Tagen responded with an emphatic "no... I will be big like Goliath." "Just so long as we can still cuddle and be silly," I replied, and he agreed to that. I realized it was February when I last posted and how much has happened since then... Tagen is 5 'and tree quarters' and Aveda Violet turned 4 in July! We got to celebrate her special day in Oregon visiting Gramma & Poppy and Gigi. Just today she asked if we could go back and visit and go fishing again as she remembered those wiggly fish and how funny they were when they would flip and flop their tails and splash water on her. Tagen 'graduated' preschool in May and had a special lil' ceremony and now he is a kindergardener! He is loving his school and Mrs. Taba, his teacher except for having to wake up in the mornings. He's not exactly a morning kinda kid. He's playing soccer again this year and has 3 other lil' boys on his team. (There's only 3 on the field at one time) He loves it this year! Lil' miss Aveda has begun pre-school at Kalaheo Missionary - just around the corner from Tagen's school. Words cannot even describe how much she loves her school. Whenever it is not a school day she longs for it and constantly talks about it, asks about it, recalls stories of it etc... Pretty cute. I didn't realize until her being there that most of her friends are Tagen's friends or siblings thereof so it is pretty special to her to have made some friends all by herself! I miss both Tagen and Aveda like crazy when they go off to school but I have seen so many good things already in their little lives as a result of going and it makes our times together that much sweeter & more meaningful.
I came across an article recently entitled, "Why don't friends with kids have time?"... a woman (who doesn't have kids) wondering what her friend who has kids does all day and why she didn't have time to call... I liked it so i am reposting the answer to her:
"I keep wavering between giving you a straight answer and giving my forehead some keyboard.... When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out bed, fed, cleaned, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kids, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; ... it's needing 45 minutes to do what takes other 15.
It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to second tier.
It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family and friends. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense.
It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything -- language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiousity, creativity. Empathy. Everything.
It's also a choice, yes. And a joy. But if you spent all day, every day, with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling someone back..."
This article struck a chord with me because I could relate on many levels. How many times I have been asked "what do you do all day?" and really, how am I supposed to respond to that? This did sum it up so well. Although it does err on the side of doing it all with a cynical attitude even though at the end it does say "this is a joy". I really do consider it a joy. I LIKE being a mom. I LIKE being with my kids and all that it entails. I am honored and blessed to have this role and even though I the season has changed from baby/toddler-hood and all those demands (which actually leaves me a bit melancholy) I love this season that we are in and all the new questions and things we get to do all day. Even though they are 4 and 5, and in school too, I am still mama and going from morning til night.

pictures:

family photo from our trip to Oregon, unfortunately Kyle couldn't make the trip. I thought of photoshopping him into this one but realized how cheezy that would look.