where does the time go? random thoughts run amuck...

i got the idea for today's blog from an email i got from a dear friend. her baby is turning 5. (she has an older child that will be 7 next month...and THAT makes me feel old b/c we met when he was TWO!!!!) anyway, this birthday is a little hard. she makes the point that 5 kind of seems like the end of the baby years and that now she has "big kids". and i hadn't really thought about it that way. but it makes me think...now I'm gonna have my first big kid. i still have an almost 3 year old and a 3 week old at home, so i'm far from missing the baby days. but i won't lie. there have been days that i have wished their baby days away. sometimes when all you do, it seems, is change diapers, then potty train, wipe TT off of toilet seats, fix sippy cups, fix snacks, wipe tables, wipe noses, break up fights, banish people to corners, wipe snot out of those same said corners, replace batteries in annoying toys, make up beds, play don't spill the beans, don't break the ice, cootie, hungry hungry hippos, and candy land for the jillionth time, watch monsters inc. for the 3rd time in one day, step on mega blocks, fill up blow up pools, pick play doh out of the carpet...well, you get it. it seems like the baby/toddler days will never end. but it is also fun watching them become big kids. like when they can say all the books of the Bible and they are only 2 and 4, or when they go to their first big kid movie (post on that to come in a couple of weeks...when luke gets to go see Kung Fu Panda), or when you take them to that movie, they tell you that you are the best parent ever, or when they break out of their shells and discover that they aren't scared of things they used to be scared of...those moments, while thrilling, are bittersweet for mamas. but it is what you have worked so hard for. we have them and raise them to leave us. it is hard for me to imagine a day when i will have kids that don't need me to parent them anymore. (what am i saying...it's hard for me to imagine having kids that don't need "parenting" every 5 seconds!!) but i know that day is fast approaching.

i told micah the other day that i am so glad that ally claire is our last baby. i'm glad we won't have to start over again. however, even in the last few weeks i have seen pregnant ladies and thought how sad it is that i'll never be pregnant again. i had wonderful pregnancies. they were very easy and very fun. i will miss not getting to feel and see all of the firsts. so i guess there is always a little longing for the things that have already passed by. but now i get to go through all the firsts of the bigger kids. we still have a few left for luke, more for seth, and so many for AC. i believe it's Trace Adkins that has the song out now "You're gonna miss this". Love it. but makes me painfully aware of the things that i have been through, that i feel like i've missed. like we talked about in sunday school this past week...life is just a vapor.

i read in a blog the other day that someone said with parenting, the days are long, but the years fly by. and that's true. i feel like i just brought luke home from the hospital and that was nearly 5 years ago. of course on the flip side, sissy is 3 weeks old...we have had her home 2 weeks tomorrow and i feel like it has been at least 3 months. we always want to be in a different "season" in our lives than the one we are in, i think. i'm guilty of that, anyway. and God puts us in the one we are in at that particular time in our lives for a reason.

so, dear friend, and you know who you are...i have absolutely no words of wisdom. maybe in 5 years i will. until then, i will give you a little lift by saying you don't have to plan things around naps, pack diaper bags or toy bags or snack bags to make a trip to walmart, remind people not to wet their pants or even wipe someone else's hiney. i mean, that's kind of a plus...right?