MY BOGGY BLOG: find your way through the murk

My Baby!

I was helping 10 year old DS out in the shower the other day (just washed his back and made sure he got the shampoo all through his hair) and then I saw it-- fine little hairs sprouting from his arm pits. I couldn't believe it--my baby is growing up! My baby is entering puberty! My baby is not a baby! He even has a pimple on his nose this morning.

My sister L. and I were moaning about our babies growing up just the other day on the phone-- her 2 year old is now saying understandable words, not just babbling inchoherently, and I was telling her that youngest DS still likes to climb on my lap and cuddle (he always was a snuggler), but now his feet hang to the floor. I know my days of these cuddle times are numbered, too. If he's like his older brother, 13, he will get all stiff and awkward when I try to hug him, look like he'd rather be somewhere else. (Though out of the blue, very occasionally, he'll come over and give me his own stiff little hug and melt my heart.)

It's hard watching the kids grow-- exciting to watch the changes that happen, interesting to see how they react to things, but we leave behind the little kid world I lived in for so long. There is sweetness in that world, and also exhaustion and frustration. And the teen world has its own charms and frustrations. Charms: their developing senses of humor, conversations with them on many topics, their ability to do more chores around the house, and being able to go out and not have to get a babysitter. And frustrations-- need I say what these are? Teens are challenging, as much so as toddler.

So I stand here with joy and sadness that my baby is getting older. It's hard to have your job always changing as a mom, and knowing that someday they'll be off living their own lives and I won't be so much a part of it. Sigh. As younger DS said, when I was squealing about his underarm hairs: "Me growing underarm hair is going to be the least of your worries, Mom!"