A few weeks ago Jase took off with Taryn to pick up Ty in the afternoon and Teagan and I stayed home to nap.  When Teagan woke up, he looked around, walked through the house and then crawled back in bed and announced “are we alone?!”  My sweet boy LOVES it when this happens.  We used to have alone time every day before we started homeschooling, and he truly misses it.  He gets excited, we snuggle and talk and play cars.  We eventually got up to go look for a snack and as I started to load the dish washer, he walked in to the kitchen doorway and said “Mom, can I get my soccer ball and go outside in the backyard?”  First, it was “mom” not “mommy”.  Second, he always goes outside with the big kids or Jase or I, if it’s just him at home, he usually wants to play inside for some reason.  And this is the first time he didn’t ask me to go with him.  There was no “Mom, can we go outside and play?”  He just seemed so…..big……in that moment.  He’s not a baby or a toddler, he’s inching closer and closer to being a kid.  As I fought back a tear, I smiled at his shoes on backwards and his shorts all twisted around and said “yes”.  And off he went.