How did we, so quickly, go from baby teeth, toddler shoes and highchairs - to stereos, shoes bigger than mine and algebra? 

How precious those young days are and yet, now, to grasp them would be like trying to grasp the air.  Those moments are gone.  Those small voices and cute mis-pronounced words, those little feet, and sippie cups - they belong to a moment in time that passes so, so quickly. 

One day those moments are your reality, and then, it seems, the next moment you're left standing there wondering how they grew up so fast.   How wise was the one who quipped "The days are long, but the years are short." 

My oldest son will turn 12 this Sunday, July 8th.  I keep telling him that he can't be 12 because I'm not old enough to have a 12 year old.  But, the child just keeps insisting that he is 12....

Makes me,even more, thankful that I still have one who is five....and still doing some of the things that we associate with the young years.  But, I've been a mother long enough to know that he, too, will be 12 before I am ready. 

When all of my children were toddlers I always wished that I could, somehow, bottle up that 'Essence of Toddler' and save it for when those days were over.  Even then, I had the forsight to know how much I'd miss that sweet time in their little lives.  I wondered if I'd ever be able to stop having babies because there would always be a part of me that missed those little ones.

I feel that I am much better with the younger ages than I am with the older ages.  The young ages challenge you physically...you stay drained and tired, but the older years...they challenge you mentally.  It's a whole different stage of parenting that requires so much more from you.  A stage of parenting that is definitely not for the weak! 

How shallow we would be as parents, if we spent 18+ years never having to move beyond what is required of us during the early years of parenting though.  I want to know my children more than I can know them through playing peek-a-boo and rocking them to sleep.  The challenges are exhausting at times, but - how much we'd miss if they weren't.  

It is strange to watch this one who seems older every time I turn around and who looks so much like me, grow into this independent individual who has his own dreams to follow, his own mistakes to make, and his own bright future just waiting for him to create.  How did I get to this place in motherhood? 

There I was - a, young 24 year old, new mother to this tiny little 8 pound, 3 ounce wrinkly faced, blue-eyed precious miracle. 

Here I am - the mother of a 12 year old young man.  The young man who made me a mother and has been patient with me as we've weathered the good and the bad together, growing in our roles as mother and son.

I feel like the little old lady at the supermarket.  The one who tells the younger mothers, with the little ones in tow, something that they really can't understand yet.   That heartfelt admonishment to -- "Treasure Every Moment".   That familiar "Enjoy them, they grow up fast."   The one who has that look in her eyes that tells a story - a story of her own years as a young mother and of her own babies toddling around, wide-eyed to the world around them.

I've got much more to learn as a mom and many more years with children under my roof and, today, I choose to remember to be thankful for that...for tomorrow they'll be on to their own way.  And tomorrow comes way too fast for this sentimental mama. 

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy.

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