time and relish and babies

so, they say time marches on...

kinda uncool when you look in the mirror and realize it marched right across your face.

but i digress...sorry to disappoint, but this is not a post about my aging :)

my BABY is right on the verge of potty-training...soooooo close! she lip syncs to hannah montana and wants to drink out of a big cup sometimes. she can dress (and undress) herself, put on her own shoes, and her vocabulary is really astounding.

i wanted this. i really did. i really DO. i've been 10 straight years in the trenches...diapers, desitin, sippee cups, nap times, tantrums. it roughed me up, for reals. oodles of hours of soul-searching and prayers and talks with my husband and peaceful inspiration brought me to the decision that our family was complete. i had THAT feeling...you know, the one i heard seasoned moms talk about for years, and couldn't comprehend. that feeling that i'm done bearing children.

strange to think that when it comes to pregnancy and onesies and binkies it's "been there, done that"...

so now i'm in this very foreign place of missing that baby smell and soft skin. and receiving blankets...oh, i miss receiving blankets!! i know, funny, but they rock :) and the "missing it" feeling is different too, because i don't miss it like "i want it", i just miss it like "i wish i had relished that stage more, because now it's gone".

so it's time to move on. it's time to relish (i'm using that word again, and the funny thing is that i don't even like relish) soccer games and friend sleepovers and the absence of baby food jars. it's time to love that we can all just hop in the car and go...no packing a diaper bag, no filling the bottle before we get on the road, no planning activities around naps. and those things are their own kind of fun and sweet--not always sweet-smelling, because now i have a 10 year old boy...nuff said :)

i loved high school. honest. i loved college. i loved newlywed life. i loved being a first-time mom. i loved it the second and third and fourth and fifth times, too. and i love where i'm at now. and i'm also sooooooo grateful for my sisters and friends who are still having babies so i can nibble on them and get my fill. thanks.

now, if you'll excuse me...that little chatterbox toddler of mine made me a present in her diaper. and i'm going to clean her adorable little bum and wrap it up again (panties or diaper?) and snuggle her until she kicks herself off my lap to dance the cotton-eyed joe in all her glory.

oh, you want a picture?