Growing Up

My babies are growing up.  They are growing up at which seems like an extremely rapid pace.  In the past month, my daughter turned 7 and completed the first grade; my son turned 9 and completed the third grade.  I am completely proud and thankful that I get to be their mom and am so amazed by the wonderful little people that they are becoming.

I have thought to myself countless times over the years "I can't believe how fast they are growing.  I wish they would just stop."  I can't seem to stop thinking of this.  I think it every time I look at their pictures.  I think it every time my son comes up to hug me and I can rest my chin on his head.  I think it every time my daughter tells me how cute she thinks Blake Shelton is.

And then for some reason this morning I realized how lucky I am that I get to watch them grow up.  Even if it is going by way too fast.  Even if it seems like yesterday that I had to lay on the floor every night and rub Paige's "toe toes" to get her to go to sleep and now she is able to put herself to bed.  Even if Hudson can now wear my t-shirts and socks instead of tiny baby clothes.

I see parents posting pictures of their kids with captions like "Where did the time go?" almost every day.  The time passes too quickly for all of us parents.  It goes by in a blink of an eye.  But we are the lucky ones because sometimes parents don't get to watch their kids grow up.  Some parents are only allowed to have a short time with their precious babies and I am complaining that my time with my babies is going by too quickly.  I am sure any and all of those parents would trade anything in the world for the ability to utter those words.

I don't want my kids to stop growing.  I do wish I could slow it down but I have been given a gift of watching them grow.  I have been given the gift of watching them make mistakes and I have been given the gift of being able to say "They are driving me crazy today!"  I know that not all parents have been given that gift and they deserve it.

Life isn't fair and it never will be.  That is something I get to teach my kids.  And I won't ever stop wishing I could slow down time just a little.  But I will stop wishing that they would stop growing, because that isn't fair to them and it isn't fair to all of those parents out there that want nothing else than to watch their babies grow.  I am just going to sit back and enjoy every single moment .