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Growing Pains
There are certain times in your children's lives when you are dumbstruck by how they are growing. My teeny-tiny two-and-a-half year old daughter suddenly seemed gargantuan when I brought her infant brother home from the hospital. Her adorable toddler dresses seemed the size of tents compared to his itty-bitty onesies when I did the laundry.
Now that infant boy has reached thirteen and is in a growth spurt that dares me to blink lest I miss some major milestone. He needed dress shoes for something and we borrowed them from an adult friend. Not one of the bigger kids in the neighborhood…an adult! We buy milk several gallons at a time and always seem to need to run out for more. Cereal is not just breakfast anymore. It is a staple of the diet that can make the difference between satiation and starvation in that black hole of hours between getting off the bus and having dinner. There are few sins of motherhood that can match the sin of running out of milk and cereal.
At the middle school Open House, I watched as the excited 6th graders were greeted by these enormous (and enormously cool!) 8th graders. Their size and their self-assuredness seemed comforting to the new students and a little off-putting to their parents who were thinking, "How can such large humans inhabit the same middle school as my little one?"
In the past few weeks, I have watched several friends send their baby boys off to college, so I know what's coming. Their babies tower over me, but still politely call me "Miss Diane." Their chiseled faces still hold the eyes that stared out of their pudgy faces back when they were on the swim team or trick-or-treating.
I wonder if a Mom ever sees her little boy as a man. I turn around and my boy comes that much closer to being taller than me. I blink and he morphs into a teenager. I take a nap and wake up to a man roaming around my house hunting cereal and milk. I know it's coming. I know he's ready. I just don't know if I'm ready.
Diane appears Wednesdays on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Diane on her blog Live and Let Di.
Live and Let Di
Diane is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Wednesday.
I try to be the voice of Moms with teens. My daughter Haley is 16. She's at that age where she is convinced that I know nothing. I'm thinking I'll seem a lot smarter when she's 22. We bond over Broadway shows. My son Rory is 13. He started reading the sports page when he was 5 and his passion for anything sports-related has grown ever since. This year he beat out 9 guys in their 40s to win his Fantasy Football League. Watch for him on ESPN in a few years.
My husband Hurley works from home, but travels quite a bit. When he's gone, I usually take a break from making dinner and cleaning the house. Oh, I don't do those things regularly when he's here either! Our parenting philosophy is "choose your battles." The only problem is that we often choose different battles. It keeps it interesting!!!
Comments
I'm right there with you, Di. Two of my babies have surpassed me in height and one is anxious to look me in the eye.
I was just thinking of a really cute thing my oldest said when he was about 4, and realized how long ago that was. I want to hols on to them longer, but their childhood is flying by.
I've recently gotten to the point where I can simply not pick up my eight year old daughter anymore. I can still sorta pick up my son, but my days are numbered. I have spent so many years with them in my arms that not being able to pick them up is so sad.
That's many years away for me, but I'm already nervous about my kids getting so big. It's still a bit of a shock to have a baby brother (he's seven years younger) who's at least six inches taller.
I definitely know what you mean about a new baby making the others look suddenly big.