I just signed their childhood away.

The last time I had to sign really important, life changing papers, the babies were 3 and 4 weeks old and I was being granted permission to take my 3 and 4 pound babies  out of the NICU and bring them home. (Yes, I was allowed to bring Hunter home weighing 3 lb. 8 oz!!!) The magnitude of that day has not diminished with time. I clearly remember saying to Brian, "Holy crap! They're letting us TAKE them?" And then, upon our arrival home, something to the effect of, "Now what do we do with them?" 

Two days ago, I rushed to the mailbox, as I've been doing for weeks now, eagerly awaiting 3 specific pieces of mail. I opened the lid and knew instantly that my wait was over.  Before me, nestled between grocery store ads, credit card offers and my Family Fun magazine, were three identical envelopes welcoming my teeny preemies to college kindergarten. Goodbye baby-hood, hello big world. With just three swipes of my pen, I granted, with hesitation, my "consent" to let my kids grow up. My babies officially became "Gale Tigers!" 

The fact that I, too, was once a "Gale Tiger", puts a smile on my face and maybe a tear (or two,) in my eyes. It's weird. Like 'de ja vu', life-full-circle weird. 

The boys don't really get it, or don't really care, but Hunter does. She senses my pride and also acknowledges my hesitation to let her go..."I don't want to get big, mom." But she does. She just says that to me because she knows it's what I want to hear. I love her for that. It's all the other moments that her true colors shine through. 

It's the "Mom, can I work on my letters so I'm really good at them in kindergarten?" and the, "Will I have homework like Autumn?" moments that I sense her desire to rule the world. I hate that she wants to grow up and I love it. Why is parenting so hard?  

The boys are much more my babies. They're smart. (All three of them.) They love to learn, but the boys, well, they may be mama's boys... They still want boo-boos kissed and they don't care about writing their letters. (Though they do love their sight words and numbers and letters.) It's been part of our nightly routine for a while now, to practice our words and numbers, (because we learned letters and sounds long ago) and only recently have they acknowledged or understood that we do this in preparation for kindergarten.  :) 

Being a mom is hard. Being a kindergarten teacher to three kindergartners at once is going to be even harder. I have high expectations of my students and I have high hopes for my babies. The teacher in me can't help but acknowledge that though their development has been pretty similar so far, there may  come a time when that is no longer the case. 

It is my hope that their teacher will welcome them with a kind heart. It is my hope that she will continue to mold them into responsible citizens; that she will discipline with love, firmness and fairness, that she will always help them right their wrongs, calm their fears, praise their successes and always know that she will be remembered for a lifetime for her patience and ability to instill a love of learning in even the littlest minds. It  is my hope that she will love them for the unique individuals that they are, while recognizing the "triplet-ness" that does also define them.   (For the record, I happen to know that the kindergarten teachers there are pretty amazing and I may or may not have even graduated with one of them. :) {no pressure, Amber.  :) }

And so the countdown begins...Look out July. 

(And because I'm sure many of you are wondering why I'm not sending them to my own school, my own class or even my own district, I'll just say this- For many reasons, the stars were not aligning. This decision felt right and I'm happy about it.) 

On a much lighter note, as if THAT mail wasn't great enough, look what ELSE came in the mail this same day! My Life Planner from ErinCondren.com. I was the last one to jump on this bandwagon in my little group of friends. So my sister granted me an early birthday present and got me my own planner so that I can be in the cool kids' club too.  It's ah-mazing.

And it comes with a whole page of personalized stickers to help keep me on schedule ESPECIALLY when I have three kindergartners and a husband who works out of town a LOT. {Thought I was exaggerating? A whole page of 'Brian Gone' stickers and he says, "Did you only get one page?"} 

And the cherry on top of this already great day? 

Two heart shaped rocks. 

I haven't seen any in months and today, I found two.  :) 

Happy Me. 

Much, much more to come in this kindergarten story.  :)

Thanks for coming along. 

"Let's kick this pig."

Oh...the stuff I've been keeping from the world...Bad blogger.

The kids are sort, of, 'old' now. Well not "old", but certainly oldER. They have personalities, wills, attitudes, ideas and 'isms of their own. And because they belong to me and I spend many a waking minute with them does not diminish the number of moments in which I stand marveling at exactly how they got to be so big, so witty and so...clever. I SWEAR it was yesterday  we were preparing 21 bottles a day, carting 3 infant car seats all over creation. I don't understand how they grew up so quickly.

Nor can I ever really decide if I'm happy about the cool people they've become or if I'm so sad that life happens so very, very quickly. I'm constantly torn, as I imagine most parents are, at various stages of their children's lives.

Several weeks ago, I picked them up after work, at my mom's house. In our usual fashion, she relayed the day's events to me-Who was good, who was...devilish not, who hit whom, who got hurt, who said what, etc.

On this particular day, they had to run around and do some errands with my mom. So she said something to them, to the effect of, "Let's get this show on the road" to rustle them all into action. Without missing a beat, Colton chimes in with, "No, Grammy. Let's kick this pig!"

When she told me this story, my first thought was, "Brian will be so proud!" Our goofy little dude used a ridiculous phrase you taught him, and he used it in PERFECT context!" My next thought was, "How did he become witty enough to know how and when to use that?!" Needless to say, it has become a family favorite.

These kids. They are truly something else. You know they turn five in 2 months?? As in YEARS! Five years old! 

{H, C, E}

I remember when they were THIS little, telling Brian that it would be FOREVER before they were 5. Forever came kinda quickly....they weren't even 5 weeks in this picture...

 {E, H, C}

So there it is. They're not gettin' any younger, and clearly neither am I. So it's now or never.

I read my FB inbox the other day (you know, the "OTHER" folder that I forget all about?) and there were 9 notes from some amazing moms and moms-to-be who had stumbled upon this little ol' blog and were so thankful that they had. So thankful for the positive attitude and information I had shared throughout our journey. I  spent the next hour responding to each and every one of them and their many questions. It sort of reenergized me...re-inspired me, reminded me why I used to write. My kids were amazing when they were infants, but they're pretty flippin awesome little people now. And we have new life lessons to share..and we're ready.

Thanks again for sticking around.

Let's kick this pig.  :)