Scuse me while I hop in some dad feels for a moment.
I got to spend a lot of time over the long weekend with all three kiddos and while they can be tiring, days where I’m mainly looking after the kids are so richly satisfying.
I got some great babies over here. So many more words now. More complex ways of expressing themselves. Hella personality and curiosity.
Lately, it’s been dawning on me that this baby phase is winding down. I know that the toddler stretch (which I’m simultaneously already in) has its own wildness. More independence, more ‘tude, sure. And while things don’t totally change overnight, they kinda did for Rhys. His second birthday pretty much brought full sentences, a new classroom, a new house, new siblings, all in a whirlwind.
I always end up a little more sentimental around October-November when the reality of all my kids blowing out another candle sinks in. And while there are a lot of challenges of these years I’ll be happy to move on from, I’ll miss a lot too, so I’m glad this is dawning on me a bit early, while I have some months to take it in.
If you roll back the clock to when we learned about Rhys and started mentally preparing, we’ve been doing this baby thing since early 2019. Five years, three kids, that’s a long stretch. And against the backdrop of a pandemic, housing price spikes, formula shortages and all that. I’m sure I’ve changed in so many ways during that window, many of which I won’t totally realize until I’ve had a moment to get used to being on the other side. This chapter has been so full of extremes, but we’ve done so in great company: each other’s.
