Sentimental

The last week of school always gets me sentimental.  I look at Luke and see how much he's grown and cannot believe he's got another year of school under his belt!  The other reality is that with another school year passing for Luke, Nora is another year closer to starting school.  Oh.my.goodness!

Honestly though, my kids still show me regularly how they are still my "littles," even though their bodies are growing and changing so very quickly.  Here are a few examples just from the past few days.

Luke

Soon-to-be third grade graduate
working on a sudoku puzzle

I dropped Luke at his soccer game so he could get warmed up with his team while I parked the car.  When I got to the field, he was teary eyed and looking for me because he had forgotten to change into his rec specs (sport safe glasses).  It's endearing to know he still needs me, even though he is nearly too big to sit in my lap.

He also had his first experience with a 3-on-3 basketball league.  He's the youngest grade able to enter, so we didn't know much about it until we got there.  There were some very talented third graders in the league, and clearly some of the teams had played together before.  Luke's team, however, was made up of complete strangers who met 10 minutes before the game.  It was certainly a lesson in spontaneity for our type A boy who likes life planned.  He looked like a deer in the headlights for the first few minutes of the first game.   He played two, 13 minute games in an hour and was pretty dejected after being beat in both games.  Oh, these are the life lessons that are hard to handle as a parent.  Our advice to Luke: take this 3-on-3 league as a learning opportunity to work on skills he wants/needs to develop.  Playing 3-on-3 is a very different game than 5-on-5 so it will stretch him physically and mentally.

Nora

Big girl waiting on her mac-n-cheese at Wild Wings

Nora likes to be grown up in so many ways, but one recently development has been ordering her own meal in restaurants.  Yesterday at Buffalo Wild Wings, she ordered her milk and macaroni and cheese.  When the waitress asked if she'd like carrots, mandarin oranges, or fries for her side, Nora's response was "yes".  It got a chuckle out of all of us, including the waitress:)

She's also at the age where we loves to talk about school and pretending to go to school.  This morning, she packed a mini-backpack with her "bear-bear," aka her pink teddy bear, and her pacifier (she's a thumb sucker, but goes in phases of playing with a pacifier).  It was such a juxtaposition: she wants to be big enough for school with her backpack, etc, but she's still my baby wanting to pack her teddy bear and pacifier:)

This morning was a beautiful reminder that they are still my "littles" and that they love each other dearly.  Nora and Luke laid on opposite ends of the couch from one another and asked to be covered up with the blanket.  It was so very precious.  After awhile, Nora came over to Luke's end and gave him her pacifier to suck on:)  They may be growing up, but at least at home, they still have lots of opportunities to be our "littles."