The Sound of Silence
As we zoom toward the day that California Girl and I will be taking The Boy off to school, we can’t help but think about how quiet it will be in the house with only one kid. The kids are only two years apart, and The Girl learned to talk at a very young age, so most of the past 15 years has been filed with their conversations. As any parent will attest, a four year old has some very interesting conversations with a two year old. Some of our fondest memories are of the kids talking to each other. When they were small babies every day was a grand adventure and they took great pleasure in the simplest things. I’ll never forget some of the conversations they had as they explored the bags from the grocery store.
They were inseparable as they grew and went through their elementary school days. I often said, for example, that it was like having the mind of a five year old with the size and manual dexterity of a seven year old. Whatever they did, they always did together. Some days were very trying but I still wouldn’t trade them for anything. Nowadays, they talk about the teams that they play on or other things (e.g. teachers and fellow students) from school. They’ve been doing a lot together, even for them. California Girl and I get the feeling that they‘re both starting to realize that their days together are almost over. The Girl is very, very unlikely to go to the came college as The Boy, so this coming August is a new chapter for everyone.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:04 am
lol, yes the silent house will take getting use to. Its fun for mom and dad when the kids go to college. You will have more time to do the things you have wanted to do for a long time.
Its when they move out of town, marry and you don’t see them for 6 months at a time that is the hardest. My boys moved to AZ and WA and they were both home for a week over the holidays.
Now the hardest thing for us will be the birth of the 1st grandbaby (in march) and not seeing it very often.
You and CG have a wonderful week and enjoy the kids while they are still around.
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Congratulations on raising such wonderful kids. You have a very lovely family.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:32 pm
SirMike: We’ve had soccer and cross county and wresting and other activities on Saturdays for so long, having free time will seem a bit strange at first. As the song says, “we’ve got planes and trains and cars”; but 250 miles is a lot different than living in the same house. Plus, we don’t know what he’ll be doing after graduation. It seemed like high school flew by, so his college graduation doesn’t seem too far off. And I don’t even want to think about grandchildren.
Greg & Sheryl: Thanks. We’re excited that The Boy is college bound; but it’s still sad to see this stage of our lives come to an end. We used to have babies. Then it was small children. Then it was kids. Now they are just a son and a daughter. We’ll always be their parents; and they will always be our children. They just won’t be the kids any more.