I'm leaving babyhood behind, too

I recently realized that it won't be too long before I no longer have a need for anything involving the word "preschool". I know Reece still has another year before kindergarten, but I also know how amazingly fast time goes these days. Because the boys are 4 3/4 years apart in age, we have had someone under the age of 5 in the house for over 9 years now, so for nearly a decade my main identity has been "mom of at least one small child". As much as I'm enjoying the freedom involved with having older children, I find I'm mourning the loss of that time and identity. I've taken to watching videos from when Greyson was 1 1/2-3 years old, because that was a time when I felt particularly close to him and he was still a "baby". Dan was deployed twice during that time, and Greyson's and my world was relatively small and simple then (at least compared to now). Our friends had kids Greyson's age or younger, or no kids at all, so he didn't get the older child influence that Reece gets from his cousins and brother. We didn't live close to many friends or any family, or even to many activities, so we spent a lot of time with each other. Or at least that's how it appears in the videos and my memories. Now, we very rarely do things just as a nuclear family, and I wonder if Reece is missing out on something because of that or if he's got some advantage because he gets to be out in the world and with others so much more than Greyson did at his age. I'm just hoping that so long as the family is happy, the details don't matter. Maybe that's why our earliest memories don't start until around the age of 4!