So for the conclusion of sappy week on asmrsmom.com (I promise to move on to higher ground next week) after five months of cohabitation, elation, frustration and mostly infatuation, the troops are moving on.  My grandsons that came here at four months and barely over two, are now practically grown men at nine months and two and a half.  And their parents are ready to fly the coop to their new home.

I thought I had been living for this day but now that it is less than two weeks away, I am facing it with very mixed emotions. Like anything, we seldom appreciate what is sitting in our lap until it is empty.

The thought of no pitter patter of little feet, knee high hugs or the sound of, “Is that you, Yaya?” when I open the front door is a void I can already feel.  The upcoming silence is palpable and their absence as real as them still in the house.

On a brighter note, they are only moving less than a mile away. (I know. Seriously.) I can pop in and out of their lives at will and I will still be nursery school bus driver number one. But as close as that all feels, I realize it will not be the same.  All too soon they will move beyond the thrill of a Yaya visit to hockey sticks, soccer balls and after school dances. High school football pep rallies, college applications and marriage proposals.  And before I now it, I will not be, “Is that you, Yaya?” but the obligatory phone call or Sunday visit at the old folks home.

I know I am rushing ahead of myself here and life doesn’t move at the pace of one paragraph.  But then again it does.  So my hope is that in the recesses of their little brains, they will see a picture, recall a story and think of a time that they lived at Yaya and Pops’ house.

And remember it fondly, with affection, as I will.

Photo courtesy of:   Bill Hale