Today a door swings shut. My babies are off to school and I am moving to a new phase. It seems like yesterday that I was feeling those first kicks in my ribs, panicking about sleepless nights with a colicky newborn, or worrying about nursery school. And there is a list of new concerns, of course, but those ones are gone now. I cried walking away from G’s school yesterday and today’s goodbye at W’s school had the same impact. I don’t want to go back to those days, but there is a distinct sense of loss as I say farewell to a life stage that was complicated, emotional, intense, and, in retrospect, incredibly short.

Pictures from the road that is turning now: Grace at 4.5, Whit at 2.5, July 2007; Grace at 2.25, Whit at 2 days, January 2005, at 39 weeks of pregnancy, 1 day before Whit’s arrival, January 2007.