I remember the day I brought my kids home from hospital. I remember those days so clearly yet other thoughts are a blurr.  And now here we are. Week three of school with both kids. How did that happen???

To think back to seven years ago when I had a newborn, and I’m that first time mum who is knee deep in sleep deprivation, reflux and poonamis. And it happened again 18 months later. Never could I have thought seven years ahead  – or even five years – that I would be watching them walk out to school. Yet here I am, my youngest leaving the coup each morning with his sibling, and all I can think is how much they’ve grown (all of a sudden), and seriously asking,  where have my babies gone??

I think back to when I first had my children and I was being told to “enjoy this time”, and “the days are slow but the years are short”. I couldn’t enjoy this time – I was a stressed out mum, figuring her way through motherhood with so many books and so much advice. And I remember crying the day my husband went back to work because it was just me and the babies; I was counting the hours until he walked back in the door.

Hindsight is a fabulous thing but it’s something none of us have. Yes, it got easier, in some ways, as the kids got older but you only realise how quickly time actually flies by when milestones, like school, begin to happen. They’ve both settled in well. The big brother making sure the little brother settles in. I listen from the background when they chat about what they’ve been doing and talking about things that happened during the day. It’s the only time I find out what’s going on because when I ask how their day was or what they did, I get one word answers or short sentence responses like “Good”, “Lots of stuff”.

I do miss them being babies (minus the frustration of working out breast-feeding, crap sleep, reflux, teething, crappy nappies – the list can go on but I’ll stop there). But, I’m so proud of them and where they’re at. By the end of the school year they’ll have grown more in so many ways. They are chalk and cheese at times but they have each other’s back. And if they continue to have that, they’ll get through life just fine.

What milestones have you experienced with your kids that stay in your mind?