Growing Pains

Every so often I go through a phase of what I call "growing pains".  Obviously, I'm a full grown woman who isn't really growing anymore (at least I'm trying not to) so my growing pains of late have come from watching my sweet baby boy quickly sprout into a big kid.  I try my hardest not to get sentimental about these things, but I can't deny that sometimes it just hurts.  A lot.  Well, I'm deep in the throes of one of these episodes but things have changed a bit with this one.  Instead of just ignoring his silly mom, Nicholas has gotten pretty sentimental right along with me and has even shown his new found maturity by offering up some very sweet words to comfort me.  Another testament to the fact that he's growing up, whether I like it or not.  The other night, we were getting in the car to go somewhere and somehow the topic of his age came up.  I told him that I wished he could stay my little baby forever and that before long he wouldn't want much to do with his old mom. And to this he immediately proclaimed that he would always love me and be my baby no matter how big he was.  The way he said it, so serious and so sure of himself, was just the cutest thing so I decided to have a little fun with him and record his words for posterity.  Now when the time comes, and it will come - 10 or so years down the road, I can play it back for him to prove to myself just how adorable he was and prove to him that he really believed his mommy and daddy hung the moon. Once upon a time, long, long ago....sigh.  That precious, 4 year old voice promising to stay little is now a very prized possession in my vast collection of mommy memories.  And then we have last night.  It's getting very hard for me to hold him or carry him around, so I rarely do it anymore.  But I always snag the chance to carry him to bed at night when he asks me to because I know those days are drastically numbered.  As we're walking to his bedroom, and he's all sleepy and cuddly, he tells me he's going to stop eating so he won't grow any bigger and can stay my baby forever.  My heart melted into a giant puddle of goo right then and there.  Now, I'm honestly not trying to project anything negative onto my child.  No neediness or clinginess.  Nothing other than the fact that his mama loves him more than the sun, the moon, and  the stars and that I want to cherish every moment of his perfect little life.  I hope as he continues to grow, he will always know that his mommy is his biggest fan.  So, this Thanksgiving I'm celebrating my amazing family - a husband that I love more every single day, and a son who I am intensely proud of, for both the baby that he once was and for the little boy he's quickly becoming.  And with that, Happy Thanksgiving.