Mondays With Roller

My baby's growing up too fast

Six words won't do.  Not today. I have way more to say.

This morning I returned to work after two weeks off. Buddy Roller stayed home with The Hubs as kids don't go back to school until tomorrow. They spent the day going through ALL his old toys, deciding which ones to "give away" to kids who could use them.  We've been putting this off for a while, and if you're the parents of a young one, then you know how toys can accumulate over the years. Right?

Anyways I came home to find the toys already sorted into piles. There were all his Thomas trains and tracks, an assortment of all his other toy cars, trucks, and action figures...even some I thought for sure he would want to keep like his Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. What?! He was ready to give them all away to other kids! I found the adorable set of six soft cars, the ones when you pull them back on their wheels they move forward on their own...my mom had bought those for him. I remember the day she purchased them. I also remember when we went to a friend's house and Roller had accidentally forgotten one of them in the back yard. I remember calling that friend and begging her to find the car, which she did, and returned to me a few days later. I found the light-up stegosaurus I bought for him at one of our trips to the Fernbank Museum two summers ago. I went through each pile, touching each little toy, remembering and reminiscing. Where did the time go?

And then the tears came. I didn't think I would cry over something like this, and I was kind of glad The Hubs was here to do this with Roller because it might have been way too hard for me to take charge of this milestone task.  I'm beginning to understand why mothers cry when their children go off to college, when they get married, and then when they turn around and have babies themselves. It's really bittersweet to watch your kids grow up and then become mature and independent.

Sigh.

I'm telling you...I'm taking the advice of moms who've already told me to hug and love on my kid as much as I can. I know there will be a day when he will not want me to. So every chance I get, I hug him plenty and kiss him millions of times all over his sweet, sweet face.

There is nothing like a mother's love. And no matter how much someone would try to tell me, I would never, never understand until I had a baby of my own.

Buddy Roller...mommy loves you so, so much. I love you to the moon and back. I love you to infinity and beyond. I love you to pieces!

And just for old times sake, my little guy humored me and put on his Thomas hat, scarf and lanyard just one more time. The engineer hat is a bit snug now for this growing boy. Look at those eyes!

Now compare those photos with this one taken when he was almost three years old!

Motherhood is a journey. I feel so lucky to be on this ride of a lifetime with these two special guys.