Almost 5. Almost 4.

Today I am grateful for my kids ages.

for the most part.

I mean, the fact that tomorrow is November 1st, which officially makes it the month my son turns 5, kind of gives me a FUCKING HUGE small panic attack.

but man. this is really THE AGE.

everything is awesome when your kids are 3 going on 4 and 4 going on 5. I mean everything.

Okay.

Do I miss them being babies? at moments. I mean, they were adorable.

Look at those faces.

sure there are days when I think "how are they so grown up now? where did these days go?"

of course, I don't really remember much of these days anyway. I had two children 13 months apart. the years late 2007-late 2010 are kind of one giant sleepless blur to me. which is another reason I am grateful my kids are now a little bit older. they sleep. for the most part.

anyway.

there is one amazing thing that toddlers going into kid-dom have that babies don't.

awareness.

oh sure. a baby can recognize their mom and knows when things are going on around them, but real awareness? nope.

you think babies care about trick or treating? think again.

you know who cares about getting a ton of candy and dressing up as their favorite nerdy super heroes?

these kids.

not the two fantastically adorable babies above.

these kids live for halloween.

and they are super psyched about christmas already.

Now, I am a self-admitted grinch. but there is just something so fun about kids getting psyched about christmas for the first time. i mean, yea. they've had other christmases. and did they enjoy getting gifts? yup. but this year there is just soo much awareness. they want to ask Santa for presents. they want to "write" him a letter and tell them what they hope for underneath their christmas tree. they want to leave him milk and cookies and cannot wait to wake up and find presents under the tree.

(which also makes me incredibly grateful that this will in fact be the first year since Brey was 4 weeks old that The Marsh will actually be home and not at work on christmas morning)

I really just love everything about this age.

I'm grateful to be done with diapers. and sleepless nights. and midnight feedings. and infant car seats. and onesies. and just so many other baby things.

It feels like it took so long to get to this point, and yet I know it happened so fast. and I know that this adorable awareness phase will be passed though quickly as well. so tonight I just wanted to take a moment after taking the babes trick or treating to just be so grateful for how fun being a mom to two almost no longer toddlers can really be.

Thanks for reading!
Lana