Like A Pumpkin At Midnight. . . .

I saw my toddler turn into a little boy yesterday evening.





It was the strangest moment for me, he was laughing at his own joke, and I was smiling and laughing too, I glanced down and in an instant, poof, there it was, the smallest of transformations. But on second thought, and after looking at photos saved on my computer, I guess it wasn't so quick and small afterall.....

(I didn't even take a picture last night...but I will later to add.)

I looked at him, just to enjoy the sight of him, the sound of his laughter that so often brightens up my day, and I noticed it. Standing before me was a little boy. A little boy with an angular jaw line and chin. Gone were the little fat pads, that so delicately form the face of toddlers with chubby cheeks that you want to pinch.

Not long after that I found myself crying in the shower, as the thought passed my mind:

Babies aren't forever.

My baby, my son, my little boy. One day he'll be a man. I can't even process that thought right now.

As a single pregnant woman, everything that consumes you is raising a baby, on your own. Babies are alot of work. Babies need you all the time, toddlers need to be protected from falls and tumbles, children need to be taught and cared for, all the while you never really think: the beginning of one phase is the end of the last, never to be seen again with that child. Kind of sad when you think about it huh?

Doodlebug no longer has that new Johnson & Johnson baby scent, no longer has smooth baby skin. It's gone, replaced by little sweaty boy, with bumps, and bruised and scrathes of a little Huck Fin, who always on his own new adventure. Don't get me wrong, I love that smell too, but when faced with the reality that my baby is gone, it makes me sentimental and sad.

So what did I do. Dug out the Johnson & Johnson baby wash for his bath last night, and snuggled up as tight as I could when we cuddled on the couch before bedtime.

You know, you are thinking about doing it too ;)