I’ve thought a lot about this moment. Ever since Harrison was born, we’ve just been slogging (and mostly enjoying) these rather long days of parenting really young kids. The baby era, where they’re so helpless and need you for EVERYTHING. The toddler era, where they’re so drunk for power and control and think they know everything. And man, it feels like we’ve lived in a bunker for the past five years. Batten down the hatches. Slogging away at the day in and out of parenting littles. And I’ve {{mostly}} Loved it. I love being these boys’ everything. And it’s also so utterly physically exhausting at the same time.

I’m a bit in denial today. I’ve obviously KNOWN for weeks…months…that this day was coming. But it’s surreal that it’s here. Today is the last day that Harrison and Jonathan will be at the same school together until Jonathan goes to Kindergarten. It really does feel like this is an end of an era (yes, that is a subtle nod to Ms. Swift). I can’t count the number of people that have told me that Kindergarten to high school graduation is like a blink, and then it’s over.

And it feels like in the past week, I’ve poked my head out of my bunker, and Harrison has been called up to the big leagues. Like out of nowhere, the powers that be have decided he’s ready to really start to have his life shaped by other people: friends and teachers. And I feel like I’ve been in the bunker for so long, that I was not mentally ready for that. For it to land on my lap like that this week. When it really hit me, as I cried to myself adding lunch money to his account for school.

So many of you have asked me if I’m going to cry on his first day. And I’m pretty sure now, there’s no way I’m walking out of that school without tears streaming down my face.

Let’s do a little Friday Favorites roundup.

I took this sweet boy Back to School shopping the other week. We went shopping for his new backpack and lunchbox. He picked out some new clothes, and we had lunch at a restaurant of his choosing. (He picked Panera, by the way.). When I said this reality of him starting Kindergarten came crashing down on me, I mean it. I had this realization that my days of just being able to pull him out of school for fun one-on-one time were coming to a close. So this one was extra special for me.

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I’m listening to a book right now that I literally can not put down. Every chance I get, I’m listening to five or ten minutes here and there because it is SO. GOOD. And I’m not going to finish it by the time I do my book review next week, but I have been on a hot streak this year. Good book after good book, and I can’t wait to share it!

In other news, the countdown of the weekends before baby has begun. I feel like my next few weeks is trying to fit in every last person’s doctor appointment, haircut, dinner with friends, etc., before baby’s big arrival! I’m so looking forward to it all, and, of course, the arrival our precious littlest one.

And we’re off! On the spring sports train! Spring soccer started for Harrison this past week. I love getting to watch him do something he loves, and his new team/program were such a great challenge and something different for him! I’m just hoping his next game/practice is a little less cold….and windy. (And I hear all of you sports moms out there telling me, “yeah right. Buckle up.”)

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We got a little taste of beautiful spring weather last weekend. And now, this weekend is going to be cold and grey. Isn’t that always the case, though? Spring seems to show up for just a moment. Enough to quench your soul and make you feel alive again. And then it disappears for another month…or two. But it had me daydreaming about spring walks with the new baby, and garden centers filled with flowers.

It was just enough to brighten our home and my soul.

We’ve had a super busy week at the house this week. We had an egress window installed in the basement, so that one day we can finish off the basement and count the square footage as finished space. AND I prepped our (used to be) playroom for our painter to come start work on painting the new nursery!

Last weekend, a few of my friends threw me the cutest little baby sprinkle. My motto post-COVID is that all things should be celebrated, so even though I had a baby shower and no one knows the gender of this little one, I loved getting to see all of my girlfriends in one place!

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