Where Did My Babies Go?

Around Thanksgiving, Andy started calling me "Mom".  I know this doesn't sound strange, but for the last ten years he's been calling me "Mommy", so the first time he called me Mom it was a little weird.  I'm not really surprised that me made the switch, he'll be 11 next month and it probably went longer than most kids, but it was just another little sign that he's growing up before my eyes.

On the opposite end we've got Amanda who truly is my baby.  I've been hoping that she would take a few more steps closer to independence and she has.  She now goes to the bathroom by herself (mostly, unless she's lonely and wants someone to sit with her) and I haven't wiped her in over a week except the day that she was wearing a fancy skirt and it was just too complicated (or she was just being uber lazy) for her and asked me if I would do it.  That means I am very, very close to the end of wiping other people's butts until my parents get so old that I am forced to do it for them (and I really hope that never happens).  On top of that, Amanda is starting to dress herself more and more.  She doesn't always match, but I could care less if I don't have to sit there while she decides what dress she wants to wear while she's having a conversation with Sarah and dancing in circles and sticking her naked butt in my face.  It sounds cute, but it gets old.

We're so busy living the day to day and just trying to get everything done that we don't have time to think about how quickly time flies by.  You work and struggle and muddle and wade through all of the years when they are so small and you can barely function, and then when you are finally getting some sleep and feel like you might just have the hang of it they are half-way out the door.

I don't dwell on it very much, but every once in awhile I'll stop and think about how big Andy is and how he's not a baby anymore and about the things that he did at Amanda's age and how far we've come.  I'm happy about all of it, but it's hard not to be a tiny bit sad as well.  My babies are growing up.

And then I'm in the car with Amanda on the way home from school and she says to me, "Mommy, can we just go home and watch t.v. and cuddle?" or Andy asks me to lie with him until he falls asleep or Sarah asks me if she can sit on my lap and I smile knowing that I still have a little time.  I know I've posted hundreds of times about the things I won't miss, but these are the things that I will.