Growing up

I'm not a very sentimental mom.  I mean, don't get me wrong, the day our computer crashed and lost every picture from the day of Elizabeth's birth, I was sobbing until Shawn and his brother, by what I can only believe was a small miracle, got them back.  But, the things that usually make moms a little melancholy, like breast-feeding for the last time, moving up into a big kid bed, going to "big kid" school, etc, etc, I just see as milestones.  I'm always glad to reach each one and for life to become just that much easier.

Why then did it feel like a kick to my solar plexus when Spence announced this morning that he wanted to be dropped at the curb and walk himself into school?  Maybe because in the midst of all those other milestones, I knew they still needed me.  Sure they're growing up, but they're still my babies and they still need their mommy.  The confident little person I saw proudly walking himself into the school building today was nothing less than an independent BOY.  No more my little baby.

That doesn't mean I didn't stop two different friends I saw walking into school and ask them to check to make sure he made it to his classroom okay.  But, he doesn't know that he still needed me to do that...