Windy days

We are home today, riding out the superstorm in our pajamas. I slept as late as I possibly could while still remaining a responsible parent, threw on my robe and joined the kids on the couch for a movie. The storm isn't too intense here, a few gusts of wind and constant, steady rain. Now I have a few minutes with nothing that needs doing so I can finally get back to this blog, at least for a moment.
 Lucy is four. The last traces of baby-ness have slipped away and she is spending less time sitting on my hip as I carry her along beside her brother and sisters. Now she leaps forward to keep up with them and I sometimes am left behind to watch them run. Which isn't a bad thing, I think it just, once again, has caught me by surprise. How fast this all happens.
She talks to me all the time, non stop as we drive to school/work in the morning (which we do together. I teach either in her classroom or right down the hall while she goes to her "big girl" preschool). Then we get to school and she is suddenly quiet and intimidated by so many faces. She takes so much in but she struggles to keep up. The other kids in the class are mostly older and they are doing a lot of kindergarten prep stuff that she isn't quite ready for. But she is happy and making friends. And when we get back to the car at the end of the morning she is full of words just waiting to spill out for me.
We go home and wait for the rest of the kids and we nap and watch quiet tv while we wait for the bus. They we are all up and running again, playing outside for the afternoon, doing homework together, getting ready for scouts or other activities. Our evenings don't seem as rushed as they have in past years because I am not juggling everything alone. The big kids handle thier own showers and baths, the little ones pick out thier own pjs and then we meet on the couch for books. We don't watch any tv after dinner anymore which has made our house a lot calmer in that last hour before bedtime.
Our weekdays are fairly routine and I'm sure seem so boring when I write it all out. There is so much happening though, so many moments, big and small. Hayley was elected vice president of the fifth grade, Julia is learning to read and dealing with the huge world of grade school. Ace is obsessed with football and video games and sometimes closes his door when he dresses up like a firefighter and plays in a big cardboard box because he's not sure if that is cool when you are almost 8. Lucy writes her name (everywhere, and sometimes in a Sharpie). The moments are moving so fast and I feel like I am standing in the middle of it, trying to catch them and slow them down long enough to seal them up tightly in memory. It feels about as easy as trying to catch a handful of this wind.
So, instead I'm just going to go sit and watch another movie or play another board game and enjoy this moment where we are all together, safe from the storm.