Independence

 There is this thing that happens as your kids get older, they develop all these interests and have a whole life independent from you. It's happens slowly and then one day, you are left wondering when it happened that they became so independent. I have been feeling this a lot over the last few months. 

My kids have always been busy on the weekends. We have sat through more baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, lacrosse, and volleyball games than I can count. Up till now we have been heavily involved with these things. Sure the kids were gone, but we were gone with them. 

Now, Merrick has shifted to high school sports where (at least for basketball) games were all the weekdays and he had his weekends mostly free. He started reffing and would be gone for a good chunk of the day. Add to that that most weekends, he goes off to church dances and on the weekdays, he has practice most days, and you have a recipe for why I feel like I never see him. Here is a picture of him from the dance yesterday. I wouldn't know...I wasn't there...

Carrigan has also started down this path of independence. She has been going to dance 2-3 times a week straight from school. They are also now in their heavy competition season. That means on competition Saturdays, she goes to the competition on the bus with her team and she is gone for about 12 hours. We show up and watch her perform, but mostly she is just gone.

Thankfully, I still have Elsie. Although, she is gone on playdates more and more. My grasp on her is tenuous at best. Just give it time. Maybe it's time for another baby...or maybe a hobby....definitely a hobby.