Right around this time eight years ago, I stopped breastfeeding almost two-year-old Huck.  I knew this motherhood milestone held the potential for heartbreak, but I was so organized about it that the whole event was pretty anticlimactic. (At least for me.  It’s possible Huck felt differently.)  The following January we kicked our almost three-year-old out of our king-sized bed and ended the family nest that I at first resisted and at last embraced.  Again, months of planning made this change seamless for the three of us really.  (It’s possible Huck would disagree.)  Some years passed and it became 2015.  Apparently we are serious about new year’s resolutions, because this January finds almost ten-year-old Huck (and his middle aged mom) facing a new change.  As I begin working more hours at The New School (today I was the art teacher), Huck is beginning an everyday after-school program for the first time.  When I mentioned this plan last month, he enthusiastically told me he’s always wanted to join his friends at after-school, making me question my determination to be available starting at 3:00 most every afternoon.  And again I find myself expecting emotional devastation but instead shrugging my shoulders in a “that was easy” kind of way.

Now then.  It wasn’t necessarily easy when I kissed Huck goodbye around 7:40 this morning knowing I wouldn’t see him again for nearly ten hours.  I realize this makes the three of us late bloomers in the garden of real life, but that’s pretty much been our way.  It’s probably why on most days Troy and I think we’re in our mid-twenties.  Look at us still trying to figure out what we want to be when we grow up!  Isn’t it nice of Huck to grow up so we can?