Needle-felting Class with Pea

Lately, I have been feeling really, really sad about how fast my children seem to be growing up.  Dumpling has, with the exception of nursing, completely left babyhood, and even toddlerhood behind, and Pea is going to have loose teeth and perhaps go to school all day away from me really soon.  And, hard as it can be, having small children seems just so wonderful that I don't want to leave it behind. 

But yesterday, Pea and I went to a needle felting Santa class.  I made this:

And Pea made this.  (She wasn't really a member of the class, but she really wanted to come.)

It was great fun.  It was a two hour class, and although Pea wasn't up to making a Santa all by herself, she was engaged for the entire two plus hour class, helping me poke, using the instructor's carders to mix red and white roving to make pink, and sharing it with all the other grown-ups in the class, making suggestions about how each Santa should look, and eventually coming up with the idea to make a Christmas tree, and doing it. 

And last year, maybe even six months ago, there is no way that Pea could have done that.  She would have gotten bored, or disruptive, and we would have had to leave early, or I would have just had to leave her with Jesse along with Dumpling.  But now she is totally up for that kind of a thing.  I didn't go to the needle felting class for her, I went for me.  But it was even better to be able to have her there, and to learn and do something together, which we both have a real interest in.  It was kind of exciting, and although we may be leaving early childhood behind, we are surely entering something new and exciting too. 

And I look forward to seeing them grow up, and learning together and sharing more.  It is an exciting adventure.

(I still feel sad about them growing up though.)