Temporarily The Only Child

The girls are back at school. The house is quiet again, and I’m a little sad. My dachshund, Miles, is sleeping on my lap, mad that this month he has to scoot down more so I can fit the computer on my lap to write. Nolan is still sleeping which is surprising because he is usually the first one up. I wonder if he is also sad his sisters are gone.

When this school year began, Nolan became the only child at home. He thought we would take trips and eat out all the time. Although that is far from reality, I think it’s been a special year as a subfamily of three. Nolan, today it’s your turn to be a slice topic!

When you were younger, you often got dragged around to your sisters’ events. As you became more involved in sports, Dad and I had to take turns with who would take you to a tournament and who would take your sister, so we often couldn’t both be there. When you’re the third to go to the same high school, yes, we have skipped the open houses. When everyone’s home, you lose the “who gets the car” battle. It’s rare that it can be all four of us to watch you run cross country or play baseball. You often remind us how you’ve been the last to get everything, and we are less enthusiastic the third time around. I beg to differ on the latter. I think you might be picking up on my disbelief that there are so many lasts happening.

Despite the lasts, there have been many firsts. I hope you’ll look back on this past year with Dad and me and realize that even if we missed the girls, it was a special time when you were temporarily the only child.

And, on second thought, it looks to me like there might have been lots of trips and eating out after all.