On a Side Note

Today Shelby and JP started a week long camp at school. I for one was somewhat looking forward to this adventure as all of us were getting to that point of desperation to have some space. While we have had the most wonderful summer and have lived it to the fullest, we haven't had much of any time away from each other and it was starting to show. This morning was great, filled with excitement and anticipation of what the day would hold for them as we headed out the door.

And then the strangest thing happened....as we pulled up to the school and first JP hopped out with not even a glance back. He immediately launched into a story for Ms. Sharon. "You know what, Ms. Sharon?" (this is how he starts nearly all of his conversations these days) and off he walked. What?!?!?!? This is my child who is always slow to separate from me and usually requires forceful encouragement to get him to go. So, I gathered myself and drove over to the place to drop off Shelby....and that is when it happened....as she jumped out of the car and walked up to the big kid building that she will be attending for school next year all of the sudden I realized that I was A-L-O-N-E for the day!!! I expected to feel a little relief to be able to run some errands, listen to the radio, and get some stuff done around the house alone, but I didn't. In fact, I immediately called my mom to share my sorrow and fight back the tears.

This is a natural progression. As we train our children they are supposed to take steps to separate from us and we are supposed to let them go, but it is crazy hard!!!

Hopefully this preparation will make the first day of school somewhat easier on me. It is just a strange feeling, the "this is it" feeling of knowing from now on everything they do is one more step to leaving our house forever. I mean, I know I still have at least 12 more years until Shelby gets ready to go and 14 for JP, but suddenly that doesn't seem so far away:(