Anyone else have the urge to make a cocktail now? Just me?

Turns out I’m not actually referring to the drink. Two of the three littles in our home got a little older this week. Hayden turned 7 and Waylon is now 7 months.

Ugh. My heart. To think where I was seven years ago when I first had Hayden, it’s a little surreal to see where we are now. Our lives are FULL. Full of so many beautiful moments and memories. Some days I miss when Hayden was little and squishy. She was the funniest toddler and the greatest sidekick. Now, I love to listen to her read and see her try so many new things. Friends from school call her on the phone and this marks the first year that almost her entire guest list for her birthday party is her school friends; I’ve only even actually met a couple of them. It will be a new experience for the both of us.

Waylon has now reached the stage where he is just flying through the milestones. He is SO CLOSE to crawling. Just a few more weeks and he’ll be cruising all over. Whether it is due to my own attempts at being more laid back, he is, majority of the time, so content. He travels really well, and car rides aren’t dreaded anymore. He sits with us at meal time and eats, and is growing like a weed. He has been in 12 month clothes for a while now, but he has already surpassed where his brother was at this age. He’s happy and snuggly, and even when he gets upset or cranky, he is easy to soothe. I would say we have definitely gotten over the really hard days, and even though our nights are still very interrupted with his wake ups, I throughly enjoy each and every day with him around. I can’t wait for this summer, with Hayden out of school, and Waylon on the move. It’s going to be one for the books.

I look around our home, and I see the high chair and baby toys scattered around on the floor. The kitchen counter is littered with cups and half eaten snacks. Usually toilet paper has gotten stuck to someone’s foot in the bathroom and has been drug through the hall. Fingerprints cover my sliding door and windows. And it was not all that long ago, that those things were just from Hayden. It isn’t so much that I’m in awe of how fast time has gone by, but how jam packed the last 7 years have been.

This go around will be the last time we see one of children learn to walk. The last one to potty train. The last time our hearts will explode from hearing ” ma ma” and “da da” for the first time. Simultaneously, we are seeing before our very eyes our baby girl change into someone who has thoughts, and opinions and strong feelings about many things. She wants to play with friends over hanging with us and I’m counting myself lucky that she even lets me help pick her clothes for school. She watches “tween” shows and blushes when she talks about certain boys from school. She is falling into her place in this world and it’s a joy to watch it happen.

On that note, I’ll leave you with this quote. It’s fitting for a time like now.

“Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them- a mother’s approval, a father’s nod- are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mother and father, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives. “

⁃ Mitch Albom