From baby to BFG

As with every year, I waved the children off to school this week feeling excited for their year ahead, but also a little sad that they are out there again in the world without me, needing less and less of me with every passing year. I am very sentimental, especially about our children, and have always been the one crying at school plays, end of year reports and their celebrations and successes. However, waving our biggest boy off this week felt like a real marker in time.

Everyone says it (and it’s true!) but time really does whizz by, and before you know it you go from cuddling a tiny baby to sitting at the dinner table opposite an almost adult. Year 11 has come round super quick, in fact the whole of high school has disappeared into a black hole, and this year feels like one that really counts.

A great kid

Son #1 is a really sensible and mature young person with a very level head upon his shoulders and I know that whatever school throws at him this year, he will handle it. The summer break has proved what a great adult he is growing into – funny, kind and super smart – but also what a loving brother and son he is, helping with household chores, playing with the dog, looking after his siblings and remaining patient with them even when they are driving him nuts. We couldn’t be prouder (and I tell him almost every day).

The holidays also included lots of exciting conversations about plans for the future, Universities, summer breaks away with friends, and adult life beyond. It’s the first year that these things really seem real and actually within touching distance. I am so excited for him and his lovely gang of friends – they are a group of absolutely lovely young adults and deserve the bright and brilliant future they will all hopefully find.

A new phase

When Son#1 was a baby, everything was a phase. Waking in the night for a cuddle? Just a phase, won’t last forever. Refusing to wear shoes? He won’t always do it. Running off to hide when it’s time to go home? It’ll pass before you know it. And here we are, onto the next, final phase of his childhood. A school trip this year marks his first journey abroad without us, and I am wondering if next summer might be our last opportunity to go away together as a family before he decides he’d rather find adventure in the company of his mates.

My BFG

We have a day together planned in a few weeks’ time, with dad at work and the other two off to Scout camp for the weekend. Theatre shows, incredible street food and virgin cocktails await us, and I am counting down the days until I get him all to myself for the day. There is something very special about all children, but I think the relationship you have with the first one, the ‘experiment’, is extra special in some ways. They make you into a parent and teach you so much about yourself and how to love and be loved (and how not to parent the others!).

So, although this year will still involve plenty of stomping around the house when he can’t find PE kit, arguing with his little sister (they are the most similar so know how to wind each other up perfectly) and getting frustrated with me for repeating myself again (“I knowwwww, muuuuum!”) I am going to try and soak up every little drop of him while I can (even the grumpy ones). In the meantime there he goes, my first baby boy, my high school smasher, my BFG.

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