Arden's first day of school. ever.

growing up

(I'm a little bit behind...I wrote this almost 2 weeks ago and realized I never finished it or posted it!)


Sometimes I wish that I could hit a pause or even a stop button on life.  The girls are growing up so fast before our eyes.  It really hit me last Sunday when Chloe started walking and we were preparing for Arden to start school the next morning... and with that the realization that Esther will start school next fall!  Needless to say, I was a little "emotional" this last week.  


I thought about the milestones Arden reached this summer... she lost her first two teeth. We were totally not prepared for this-she's four! In July, she began reading! I'm so proud of her.  And even though it's been a couple of months, I'm still so surprised when she reads something aloud to me and I think, "how did you do that?"  The other day she came home from school with a book from the library and sat down and read the entire thing by herself.  I asked if her teacher read it to her or the class, thinking she'd memorized some of it by chance, but no, she'd never heard it before.  It was so neat teaching my students to read and being excited for them when it clicked.  Being a mommy now and watching it "click" for Arden and seeing her excitement is a-mazing!  
  
We also watched old home videos last weekend to show Arden and Esther video from when they first started walking.  Watching Esther learning to walk also meant we heard Arden learning how to talk.  I don't think we've actually looked at these since we took them and so it was really eye opening to hear Arden barely speaking.  (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, this  might help a little bit.)  The Lord has done such a wonderful work in her life and to think that just two years ago she could only say a few words and now she's reading and in preschool is just amazing-praise Him!! 

And the big event... Arden started VPK (K4) on Monday.  She is going 5 days a week from 9 to noon.  I'm sure some of you are thinking, what's the big deal??, so I will tell you.  Beyond Sunday mornings at church and a once a week, 45 min. ballet class she started last year, Arden has always been at home with me.  She's never been in a mother's morning out program or any type of preschool program until now.  I was really hoping for a 2 or 3 day program to ease her (and me) in, but VPK where we live requires 4-5 days.  So our life has taken quite the change this week.  I'm happy to report though, that Arden LOVES school and  was sad when she learned she couldn't go on Saturday.  Being our social one, I knew she would thrive and it has been really fun seeing her so excited.  I also think it has helped me not be so sad.  It's hard to cry when your little girl is so happy!  I will admit to shedding some tears the first day of school.  Woody prayed for Arden before she got out of the car...that started it!  And then I walked her in, helped her find her cubby and seat and she got right to coloring, as happy as can be.  I found myself lingering at the door, not wanting to say goodbye... my little girl was all grown up!  On my way back to the car there were a few more tears shed and that was that.  I did great the rest of the week until Friday morning when I dropped her off in the carline for the first time instead of walking her in.  She was so proud to walk in by herself and I shed a few more tears pulling out of the school.  

I'm not the only one though that had an emotional week.  Life for sweet Esther has also changed.  Her best friend is dropped off at school every day and now she gets more time with Mommy.  I've been looking forward to this time with Esther and I've seen glimpses of how much she is also enjoying it, but for most of the week, she seemed to long for her sister.  I think she was also just confused for most of the week about what was going on.  On the days she went with either me or Woody to take Arden, she took her backpack and said she was going to school too.  It was really sweet, but also made my heart really sad!  I'm thankful that A and E are so close and it has been really neat to watch them go straight into playing together when we come home after school.


So if you're still reading this and wondering where all my emotional rambling is going... I guess it really struck me this week how fast our girls are growing and how life is changing.  I'm so grateful that the Lord has blessed our lives with each of them and provided the opportunity for me to stay at home with them.  I want to make sure I'm making the most of each day to love and nurture them, train them according to His Word, and of course be silly and have dance parties and tea parties too!  I know they're all still very young, but I just want to savor as much of life as I can right now.