In The Blink Of An Eye

I remember when I was growing up, how all the old grammas and aunties and the plethora of people my parents knew, would tell us how "quickly you're growing up" after they hadn't seen us for a while. I clearly remember rolling my eyes (and massaging my oft pinched cheek) as they walked away. What did they know? This growing up business was taking for.ever.

It's a flex Friday here, which means the kids don't have school today. It also means we let the kids determine for themselves, what time they were going to bed last night (for the record, they chose midnight). I was tired and crawled in to my bed a bit early, to watch ER from the comfort of my cozy bed and lovely warm duvet.

My oldest son came up and knocked, wanting to talk to me for a second. He didn't identify himself, just knocked and entered when I said for whomever it was, to come in. The only light in the room came from the glow of the TV and when he walked in, I honestly thought it was my husband and couldn't figure out why on earth he was knocking. Then I realized it was my son. It took my breath away. He's an adult now, a man. He's 18. And he suddenly has lost that young boy look and he is a man. And ever so suddenly, the phrase "you're growing up so quickly" has become mine to utter.

He has grown up on me, in the blink of an eye. In the midst of diapers and potty training and first days of school and losing those first teeth and chickenpox and "first love" with the next door neighbour girl (seriously, how cliche could he get?! LOL) and the trials and tribulations of junior high and high school football, suddenly........he's grown. In a few short months, I could have one less child living in my household.

It didn't seem that things were moving along that fast when I was up to my elbows in spit up and dirty diapers. It doesn't seem like 18 years should go that quickly. But it has and it has disappeared in the blink of my eye. And while I'm happy for him, and excited for him as he portrays his excitement in entering the big wide world on his own terms, interested to see where this life takes him, my mother's heart gathers these memories and tucks them away in a special corner and for a moment, sadness overwhelms on those occasions when I pull them out, one by one and examine them.

You've grown up so quickly.