So, tomorrow is the http://www.MsKatsMusic.com website’s birthday!

I don’t consider it my “business” birthday, because I started teaching preschool music far before the website began. And Ms. Kat’s Music & Movement didn’t become an LLC until this past January, so I’ve got a while until my legal business birthday, but July 12th, 2013 is the day I decided I’d need a place to create, organize, and archive our musical community! So thanks for reading. 🙂

But while we’re on all this business about birthdays:

You guys: On Monday, I’m going to have be having a personal milestone. My littlest kid, my last kid, my baby, is turning FIVE years old. I’ll no longer be a baby-mom, or a toddler-mom, or a pre-schooler mom. I’ll be a full-blown KID mom.

This is not a transition I’ve anticipated having a big effect on me, but here it is.

As I’ve watched him trot off across a playground to play with other five-year-olds at Incoming Kinder Playdates (?!?) — to meet up with total strangers, at totally strange and new parks, without so much as a backward glance for reassurance (?!?) — I’ve had a chance to reflect on motherhood, and appreciate all of the changes that have come with time. And to appreciate all of YOU!

I realized during my most recent in-home musical playdate (and tried to voice some of this there, but was largely drowned out by your very happy children) that I needed to take an opportunity to shout a great and resounding THANK YOU to all the parents of my borrowed kiddos! Not only on my behalf, but also on theirs — especially if they’re too young to do it themselves.

 

Thank you for getting them out of their pajamas and sopping overnight diapers, and into a fresh set of clothes for the day. (Did you remember to change over that load of laundry?)

Thank you for sitting them down for a healthy breakfast, especially those of you with picky or fickle eaters. (You also ate, right? Coffee is a given. Coffee doesn’t count.)

Thank you for combing through their tangled hair, despite the protests and stubborn cowlicks. (And you look great in a ponytail! It’s very perky.)

Thank you for putting on their shoes — maybe twice, maybe more if they’re the sort to pull them right back off again. (Sigh.)

Thanks also for keeping your exasperation to a minimum when they insist that they prefer to have their shoes on the wrong feet. (Grr! Whatever. Fine.)

Thank you for strapping them safely into their carseat and enduring the umpteenth repetition of “Let It Go” on the CD player on your drive over. (Yes, you’re dealing with Austin traffic, but at least you’ve got an empty lap for a few minutes, right?)

Thank you for bringing them to music classes, and to a shared experience with their friends, when you COULD be doing a billion other things: grocery shopping, or getting your oil changed, or getting 30 minutes of cardio in at the gym… the list is endless. It’s an HONOR that you’ve chosen music.

Thank you twice over if you’re doing all of these things with a baby on your hip! I’ve got a biggest-kid, too, and it could get overwhelming to be constantly watching all directions at once.

….

So, yeah, here we are two weeks into July, and the summer of 2014 is half over.

Hang in there, mamas. It’s all flying by.

Meow, meow!