Yesterday.....

Yesterday....I was told I was pregnant....with triplets, and I cried. I cried for joy after 8 years (and truly cried because I didn't know what the HELL I was going to do with 3 of "them"!)

Yesterday....I brought them home form the hospital, one by one...

Yesterday...I taught them to hold their bottle, eat finger foods and how to sign I love you...

Yesterday...I cried tears of joy when they took their first steps...

Yesterday... I practically threw a party when they were completely potty-trained. (Especially Dominic, who we thought his wife was going to have to give it a try).

But Kindergarten...Kindergarten marked the official beginning of "I’m not a little girl/boy anymore." One day they're writing "I (heart) Mommy"; the next they're writing "I (heart) so-n-so." I have been academically prepping them for this rite of passage since they were 18 months old. But a funny thing happened; the more I got them ready for kindergarten, the more unready I became. That’s when the light bulb went on upstairs: My babies were actually growing up! But yesterday....yesterday I walked them into their first day of kindergarten...and I cried (actually, not really, I was the only parent doing cartwheels back to my car!)

I might as well confess: I sometimes stop what I’m doing just to watch my kids and observe how much they have grown.

When I look at them, I see:

Brooklyn who was almost as bald as Kojak (except her back and she turned that around when I threatened to get her waxed on the way home from the NICU) but who now has thick-as-a-rope hair that’s down her entire back.

Kennedy who was scared of her shadow and didn't make a friend until she was 3 1/2 years old and now is a social Diva.

Dominic whose nickname was grumpy bear because he fit the part. His cry peeled paint off my walls. And now....he sings all day long, his main way of travel is his one sided skip and I think the boy smiles in his sleep.

I see the toddlers that spoke their first words...

I see the kids that used to be so scared of the dark, I used to have to spray their bedroom with water...I mean anti boogie man spray (I believe they called it Aunt Peggy spray....no offense Aunt Peggy). Now when one gets scared, I hear the other tell them....It's ok....Monsters don't live in Corona... (maybe the cows...I dunno).

I’ve had to turn my head away several times during moments like these, because my heart would get so full — and so would my tear ducts.

So, yesterday, I walked them into Kindergarten....and picked them up at the end of the day as 1st graders!