I am the Mama

Quit growing up!!!  My oldest son is now a second grader.  In his bedtime prayers last night, he thanked God for his new teachers.  He said they were the best teachers yet and then also thanked Him for all of his other teachers, who he remembered by name.  He comes in from school, does his homework without being asked, and buys gifts for his brother and sister with his own money. He isn’t what I would call a little boy anymore…he is firmly in big boy territory and will soon be a tween.  I’m not ready for this at all.

Quit growing up!!!  My middle child will be starting full-time preschool next week.  In his prayers, he thanks God for his mommy and daddy and brother and sister.  It makes me want to cry, it’s so sweet.  He loves to be rough and tumble and has a great imagination.  He has a superhero hand and a mean hand and that mean hand is soooooooooooooo mean, but the superhero hand does things like hold his sister’s hand when we’re walking somewhere.  This time next year, he’ll be halfway through his first quarter of kindergarten.  Where does the time go?

Quit growing up!!!  My baby girl, my tiny little pink bundle, is now walking and talking and so not a baby any more.  She throws tantrums the likes of which I’ve never seen.  She likes clothes and shoes and hats and dragons and trucks and cars.  She stands up for herself when necessary and never plays the shrinking violet role.  If I’m home at bedtime, she climbs into my lap and begs for her “nuh” but if I’m out, she snuggles on the couch with her daddy and they are both snoring by the time I get home.  She sleeps in a toddler bed and says “night-night” and makes kissing noises at me when I lay her down for a nap.  She no longer needs me for food or comfort.  I don’t know how to deal with that.

Every day takes them one day closer to the day they’ll leave for college, get married, have kids of their own.  And further and further away from the days when all they needed was me.  I want to stop time or change my mind about the whole “no more babies” rule.  But I can’t.  So I watch them start their slow walk away from me and I smile…because I believe that I’m raising them well and with the love they deserve.  These amazing kids will be amazing adults someday and I’ll know then, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I did a good job with them.

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