Where doe the time go?

January 25, 2001 found me having my first child, Jack. The day had started out ordinary enough. There were signs that delivery was soon, but I chose to ignore them and go to work. After all, the sign I received could mean that I could deliver within 24 hours or 2 weeks. The way I felt, I figured it would be two weeks - his due date (February 5th). As lady luck would have it, it ended up being within 24 hours. My school was the furthest point from the hosptal, and my husband's school was on the way so I drove to pick him up. I felt fine, but I couldn't get Jack to move around so the doctor wanted me to come in for some monitoring. The labor pains didn't really start until I picked up Jason and handed the keys over to him. We got to the hospital around 11:00 a.m. and went in for the monitoring. Sure enough, I was far enough into labor that they checked me in and we went down to labor and delivery. At 10:52 p.m my first child arrived - big and highly pissed off. He was 8 lbs 12 oz and cold. But he was mine and he was here, and he was hungry!

Fast forward to today. Jack turned 8 years old and I'm sitting here wondering, "Where did the time go?" My 8 lb 12 oz, 19 1/2 inches long baby boy is now 105 lbs and 4 ft 8 inches tall. He'd much rather play with his friends than hang with mom. But isn't that the way it's supposed to be? I don't know, but what I do know is that I can't imagine what my life was like before him (or my daughter for that matter). The smallest of successes are the biggest victories in life. Some of the life lessons he has to learn about friends and people are hard to watch. But I know that with the right love and support he'll get there, and be the better for it.

So for now I'm just enjoying the moment. For now, the little things like him saying thanks for the laser tag birthday party are enough. I know he won't be 8 for long, and in another blink of an eye he'll be 16 and wanting to drive. He'll also be taller than me soon - 4th grade is what I think I calculated, so hopefully he won't get too tired of mom. Because I sure won't get tired of him. Even when he's 6 ft 4 inches tall and 30 years old, he'll always be my baby.