How did that happen...?

By some fortuitous circumstance, I ended up with some free alone time. Sarah has been fighting a nasty cold and ear infection and just crashed early and went to bed. Jamie and Nicholas are watching some sort of shoot first blow them up second action movie downstairs and I'm at my kitchen table. Alone. With a cup of tea.

So, here I am alone and free and what should happen. I don't read a book. I don't clean out the fridge. I start thinking. And I get a bit sad. I start thinking about how Sarah is ONE and we're giving up the bottle. We went cold turkey and it has gone well until today. She doesn't feel good. I thought I'd probably cave in and give her one if she wanted before bed. I hate to undo how far we have come but she's so pathetic with her snotty little nose and her freezing ear drops. However, she fell asleep without mentioning it, so another day down.

Anyway, what made me a bit sad was the realization that OMG we might be done with bottles. Done. Forever. And as much as I hated middle of the night feedings and missing my sleep. I will miss snuggling up with her warm little body and giving her her bottle. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the whole sleeping through the night as much as the next person. Holy Cow did I need some sleep. It's just those beginning days were so hard. I didn't get much time to hold her when she was a new little life on the outside world. We didn't get those early blissful days together sitting in the rocking chair and marveling at her. She was in NICU then I was sick. And by the time all that was done she had a couple months on her already.

And Nicholas. He's 9. He's growing up. I just can't even talk about all the maturing he's doing lately. Just can't.

Le Sigh.

Anyway, the long-awaited summer is finally upon us. It just got here and it seems like it is already booked up and overflowing with all the busy. Nicholas has places to go, people to visit, visitors to come to us and a whole assortment of THINGS TO DO. The weekends are already dwindling in front of my eyes.

I'm already searching for curriculum for next year. We've got the school area torn up so we can make it more user and Sarah friendly for next year. We've done some things around the house to make everything a little easier to handle. The biggest change we made was moving around the basement so the family area is accessible to the steps. That way we don't feel so disconnected when we are down there and one or both kids are in bed. And Nicholas' Legos are not the first thing I see when I go down there.

I need to print off some calendar pages and start marking everything down. I need to set down some concrete plans for family time. If I don't, before I know it, the summer will be eaten up and we'll have missed our chance to make a bunch of fun memories.

And with that, I think I'll watch some HGTV or something while I've got the chance! And maybe sniffle a bit at the passing of time.