Noah's last day of Kindergarten (and reminiscing)

How did I go from worrying about how to cut his new baby fingernails and how long to go between feedings...to all of the sudden him being done with Kindergarten?  I swear it all happened in about 5 minutes.

It's such a strange thing to experience those mixed feelings as a parent - the pride and delight at watching your child grow, develop, and become more their own person...while at the same time lamenting how quickly they are growing up, and with each stage relying on you less to some degree.  It's still such a strange, sweet sorrow that I feel watching my kids grow up - and perhaps that's the primary reason why I carry a camera everywhere with me and feel a need to keep this blog, because things are going by so fast and in some small way I can try to freeze these moments in time just a little bit.

Because when I look back through these pictures, and read about little things my boys did or said, I am there kissing their sweaty hair or smelling their banana covered hands.  I remember what it was like to hear my first child learn to read, or to watch my "big boys" hold our new baby.  I remember what it was like for the rest of the world to cease existing as my baby's laugh echoed through our kitchen.  Because I treasure the love notes my boys make for me more than anything I could ever purchase. Because right now I still have a baby that I wish would sleep through the night every night without being rocked back to sleep...but that I also know that it won't be long before he will be too big to hold and rock back and forth.

Every stage that I document on this blog, and perhaps subconsciously wish away (sleepless nights, needy toddler, drawn out bedtime routines, picky eater kid, arguing siblings, etc), becomes part of the fabric of irreplaceable memories that I wouldn't change for anything.  And even though being a full time mommy is sometimes a bit redundant and thankless...it's all these little memories and moments that I am collecting that I feel like make me so very rich indeed.

End to sappy mommy speech.  For this post anyway.  Now on to show a few pictures from Noah's last day of Kindergarten (that catalyst to all of those nostalgic words in the first place):

6/1/12 We put a little gift together for Noah's teacher and he made her a card to tie onto it.  Here he is before leaving for school that afternoon...

Noah with Mrs. Burton.  I love his "I love this, but still feel a little bit shy" smile.

After school was out one of our neighbors had an ice cream social that all the kids in the area went to and we celebrated the first day of summer break!  Here is Lincoln, Tyler, and Noah.

Now bring on summer!