Ages and Stages

Jake is 7. Phoebe is 3-and-a-half. How did this happen? Well, yes, I know how it happens...time passes.

First slowly...oh so slowly in those first months of life. Would I ever get enough sleep? Would my body ever be fully mine again? Would my child stay alive if I did not personally attend every breath in his/her body?

Then a bit faster...back to work, rushing to get first one then the second to daycare, to work, home and fed and to bed. How did it go so fast?

Faster yet...walking and talking. Potty training, regular food, goodbye to the crib once and then twice.

Hey, where did the school bus come from? How did it turn my baby into a school-age child? And now the second one wants to get on the bus, go to school, begin her life.

And here I am...pausing briefly to look back as I still plunge headlong into the future. I can sit in another room as they play with each other, converse with each other, share inside jokes, love and some punches.

They grow up, and I grow older. In this moment I am looking ahead to our future. Where will we be 7 years from now? What adventures will they undertake--adventures that will take them ever farther from me? I know I will never again be as necessary to them as I have been. But I still hope and pray they will need me.As much as I need them. As much as I now realize I still need my mommy.