Our family has gone through many stages. Every family does that, I guess. But I classify it by how Saturday night goes. Our family stages went like this: Hanging out at Adam and Jessica's every Saturday night, Hanging out at Adam and Jessica's every other Saturday night, Stay at home most Saturday nights, Staying at home every Saturday night, going out one Saturday night a month, hanging out at mom and dad's every Saturday night, and now we find ourselves going out at least 2 Saturday's a month.
In "people who don't have kids" language, that was...Dating and married life before kids, Married life after one kid, married life after 2 kids, married life after 3 kids, married life as the 3 kids got older and easier to handle, and married life now that we can in good conscience leave the kids with a babysitter a few times a month and go out ALONE. Well, technically, we usually go out with other people but as long as those people are potty trained and can fix their own dinner plate and don't call me "Mama", I'm FINE with that.
The point is...our kids are getting older. Not old older. Just older. Cate is self sufficient, Simon just needs to be reminded to go to the bathroom every few hours, and Liam doesn't cry when I leave him anymore. No one HAS to take a nap or go to bed at a certain time. They can eat supper anytime between 4pm-10pm. They don't have to have bathtime in order to go to sleep. They are just older now. I knew this was happening, but it didn't "hit" me until Saturday afternoon when I disassembled Liam's crib :-( It was a definite sign that we were moving into a new stage of life!
This little white Jenny Lind crib has been slept in by all of my kids. I don't like to call myself nostalgic, because by most accounts I am not. I have no problem selling the crib after I am certain that we are finished having kids. But it WILL be a bed that ALL of my kids slept in. Cate, Simon, Liam, and whoever else comes along in another year or 2. It's our crib. And for the first time in over 4 years, it was put in storage until a time that it is needed again. I never in a million years thought I would be weepy about taking that thing apart. It's a piece of furniture for crying out loud! It is a pile of wood and metal brackets and screws and white paint. It's furniture. Why was I weepy? I wasn't sad that Liam was officially out of the crib. I am happy about that. Happy that he has adjusted so well to sleeping with his siblings, happy to have the extra space in the boys room, happy to not have the chore every 3 or 4 days of changing crib sheets. I was excited when I decided to do it, but when I started seeing the pieces piling up in the hallway, waiting to be taken up to the attic, I started to cry. It still doesn't make sense. Maybe I am emotional about see one of last pieces of furniture from the old house going away. Maybe I am more sad about not having a baby anymore than I am about Liam not being a baby anymore. Maybe I am emotional because it was cycle day 21...who knows. But I cried a little, then I took a deep breath and started making plans for the newly vacated space in the boys room. And then we went out...without kids. It was awesome. Bad feelings gone...
Every stage of our life in exciting to me. I loved dating Seth, I loved planning our wedding and building our house. I loved planning for our babies and adjusting to life with each new little one as they came. I even loved 2009, the most stressful and insane year in the life of our family. This stage we are going into now is, without a doubt, just a nostalgic kind of stage. The kids are getting older. Things are getting easier. Life is getting funner...errr, more fun. This year, 2011, is shaping up to be a very exciting year indeed. New family members, weddings, babies, my business is thriving, the boss is more creative than he's had time to be in 6 years. I'm excited about all that is in store for our family but I think 26 must be that age that the light switch in your soul gets immediately flipped on and you start thinking "Slow down!!! I'm out of shape and can't keep up!" For nearly 3 years, I have been wishing for the hard stage to go by more quickly, and now that it is, I am asking it to slow down. It's true, there ain't no pleasing a woman...
Good bye crib, you served us well. See you in a couple of years.
(pictures from April 2009-1 month before we left our old house)
Oh hi, Saturday nights without kids! How are you? We've missed you! Whatcha doing this weekend? We should totally get together :-)
5 comments:
For some reason, until this post, I never realized how truly close in age Liam and Soren are.....man, I wish we were neighbors!
Liam will be 3 in May, but he's still very much a baby to us. He's a bit delayed :-) I wish we were neighbors too :-)
That only puts them 8-9 months apart....I always thought (in my mind) there was a bigger gap than that. Gosh, it would be a blast for our boys.
We're thinking of switching Soren to a full size bed this summer. He naps in his crib beautifully but night-time is another story...he's usually in bed with us by 2 am...sometimes earlier. I'm hoping the big bed will help him sleep through the night in his room.
megan- I had little hope of our kids being comforted by sleeping together. But they are. They are all 3 now sleeping together and we don't see Cate until at least 4 or 5am. She's always been our crappy sleeper, she wakes up and can't go back to sleep until she is with Seth or me. But she sleeps better with her brothers in the bed with her. Whatever...sleep is sleep and as long as we get an hour ALONE in our bed every night, we are happy :-)
Sam went into a big boy bed just before his 2nd birthday and that crib moved from Riley's room to Sam's and now it is in the garage. We are not having any more babies but that crib isn't going anywhere. :-) I was choked up to see it carried off to the garage that day.
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