Confession #27: It all goes away.

Confession #27:  All those small things?  They go away.

I was getting a pedicure yesterday, and I happened to glimpse out the window to see a young mom putting her toddler into her car seat.  Immediately, I felt that feeling all over again.  That rush of exhaustion and relief because you're putting your small child into a restraint.  Who knows what challenges she had just faced inside the paint store?  Who knows what mood the little girl will be in now that she's strapped in her seat?

I felt all of that again.  You see, I haven't really had those experiences any more.....my kids are getting bigger. They're not in college or anything scary like that, but they are growing up.  They are 9 1/2,  nearly 7, and 4 1/3.  That's a lot different than 5, 2 1/2, and newborn.  It's a world of difference.

Let me tell you what I don't do or have anymore;

*I don't get to smell baby hair.
*I don't hear the roll of the highchair wheels.
*I don't have warm-turned-cold patches of baby drool on my shoulder.
*I don't do a five-point harness.
*I don't clean fuzzies out of baby fat rolls.
*I don't debate whether or not to take my little one out of the car seat carrier.
*I don't have a diaper bag.
*I don't wash, buy, or pack bottles.
*I don't have little snack cups.
*I don't have fat baby feet in teeny-tiny socks.
*I don't have hourly wakings to eat.
*I don't wait for first words.
*I don't wait for first steps.
*I don't have necklaces used as chew toys.
*I don't hum lullabies over and over again.
*I don't shush-shush-shush while rocking a baby.
*I don't wince before opening a dirty diaper.
*I don't cry when I realize the last baby wipe was used to wash someone's tricycle.
*I don't have any toys made out of big, fat plastic.
*I don't have any toys which make ridiculous, never-ending sounds.
*I don't have fat, squishy baby hands grabbing my hair while nursing.
*I don't have fat, squishy baby hands grabbing my lips while I'm trying to talk.
*I don't have fat, squishy baby hands grabbing my face and turning my head to listen.
*I don't have 0-3 month clothes in any closets....unless they are in "too small" totes.
*I don't even have a stroller.

You don't think you'll ever miss those things.....but you do.  I do.