Life's Journey

I feel like it's been forever since I did an update post on the kids.  Life just tends to roll along and then one day I wake up and realize that both of them have changed.  Teddy went to his 15 month appointment this past Friday.  He's doing great, holding his own at the 30th percentile mark, which quite frankly surprised me.  Most people that see him in person describe him as "solid" in terms of size.  One wonders how big those kids are in the 90th percentile.  No words yet, although Gram Coberly and I are adamant that we heard a perfectly formed "Papa" escape from his mouth this past weekend when she was trying to get him to say...what else..."Gram."

Katherine is inching every closer and closer towards the first day of Kindergarten.   Her teachers declared the morning of her preschool graduation that she is indeed "ready" not only cognitively (we've known that for a while) but also emotionally.  Yes, she still has her moments of tears but overall things have improved, where she uses her words (sometimes too much!) instead of her tears.  Last week at dinner she declared that she didn't want to grow up, that she wanted to stay four.  I informed her that if she stayed four she wouldn't be able to go to kindergarten..."Ok, I'll turn five but that's it!"

Monday was the Arlington burial service for Ted's grandfather. For Katherine, this is the first time she has encountered the death of a person and been old enough to have some sort of comprehension of what is going on.  There have been many moments over the past few days filled with questions on dying and burials when she is going to see her Great Grandpa again.  I found myself explaining what a soul was to her on Sunday evening.

What stuck me most about the day was not the official ceremony.  Instead it was watching Katherine walk hand in hand with her cousin Ben up to the burial site engaged in a conversation about what was going on around them.  I didn't catch all of the conversation but you knew that they were trying to make sense of where they were and what exactly was happening as best as two soon to be kindergartners could.  It was a sweet moment. It was Ted who thought to pull out the camera:

As a parent you wish you could protect that innocence your children have when they are young forever.  I feel like learning that we do not all live forever is the beginning of losing that precious innocence.  Death is an inevitable part of life and while we don't want to think about it we all have to come to terms with it sooner or later.  Katherine still has a ways to go before she fully comprehends everything.  We were out picking tomatoes after we arrived home yesterday.  There was a dragonfly on the patio that, well, was on it's a way out, so to speak.  "I hope it comes back to life".  And while a part of me wanted to let it go, in light of everything that she experienced this past week, I felt it was best to let her know that once something dies, it does not come back to life. Much as life and death is a process, learning about life and death is a process too.  Katherine is just beginning down that long road.