She gave up the swimmies

Amelia Jayne learned to swim underwater this summer! We went to my dad's a couple weeks ago and she didn't wear her swimmies once while we were there - even in the deep end! (Be still my quickly beating heart.)

My girl is independent. She can buckle her own seatbelt without help. She gets up and picks out her clothes and dresses herself each morning.  She runs out and gets the mail all by herself. 
And this independence has hit me like a ton of bricks. She's a big girl. She's not starting kindergarten this year, but she's only 2 months away from turning 5.

It's a weird thing moving out of the preschool years. I've been in them for so long now and they are truly a part of who I am. I feel like I've been down in the trenches for the past 7ish years. And it is a hard place to be, y'all. Maybe not for everyone, but it sure was for me.

I won't lie. There are things I miss about the baby stages. Their sweet smell and soft skin. Their funny dances and silly word pronunciations. Their littleness that cuddles so easily. Their amazement at anything new or different.  Rocking them to sleep at night. Oh, so many beautiful memories.
The kids and I found some old videos of them on my phone just the other night. We watched until my phone died - just silly things, but stuff that made me tear up and reminisce and count my blessings all over again.

But you know what? I really like where we are now. I like that everyone can use the bathroom by themselves and clean up their dishes after a meal. I like not having to schedule activities around nap times and not having to pack up the whole house just to go to the store. I love how I only have to get up a couple of times during meals to get something for the kiddos, instead of the 72 times  per meal I used to get up for them as toddlers. I love the conversations we have and how each day brings new questions and a different kind of curiosity than they had before. I like that we honestly like a lot of the same things and can sit down and really enjoy conversations with one another.

She gave up the swimmies. And honestly? Though I feel the overwhelming nostalgia at times, I'm pretty happy about it.