The big yellow monster

"After the boys of summer have gone..."

School has begun. As one woman said to me through her own tears the other day, I hate that big yellow monster that takes my children away.

If you read my blog regularly you are probably expecting me to sing, "It's the most wonderful time of the year" or "Hallelujah" But you are wrong.

I know that I started this blog so that I could rant and rave the frustration of being a stay-at-home mom on someone other than my children. And it has really helped ease the sometimes mundane and crazy life that it Motherhood.

The truth is I would not trade it for the world. I know that I am extremely lucky to have these two beautiful and healthy children. There are so many parts of motherhood that no one can explain, that sound ridiculous when you don't have children that age, that suddenly make so much sense.

When I was pregnant with my second, I was struggling with a two and half year old and a tough pregnancy. We took off for the park that morning that school started and I passed the bus stops in the neighborhood. One mother said as she put the kindergartner on the bus, "I hate not knowing what she'll be doing all day and who is going to influence her." All I could think was, "I'd give my left eye right now for someone to take him for 4 hours so that I can go back to bed!"

But I wasn't there yet, so far from it. When you are in the trenches, the baby/toddler years, you feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Before you know it you can come up for air and it can be so beautiful. Then that big yellow monster comes to take them away.

I do not have control over what he does, or who influences him, I can not protect him, or comfort him. But I've done the best I can. We've moved into a fantastic school district where I don't worry about his safety, education, or his teachers. I have been home with him and still am the only one to put him on and get him off the bus, take him to soccer, and get to every meeting.

Next year, that big yellow monster is going to try to take my baby. But I will be ready! Locked and Loaded, I live in the Midwest for goodness sakes, their not getting them both!