Being "Mom"

My older girl has a class ring now. It's so cool. Not all the kids get one anymore, I was really glad that she wanted one. Traditional things like that really tug at my heart strings, which is why I'm posting about it.

When she was about 4 years old, I thought "There is no way she is ever going to get any cuter, I am really going to miss this when it's gone."

She used to sleep with us every night and I wondered if that would ever end. She pronounced her name "Taynin Owine Tookavich" She wore the Snow White costume every night until it was worn out, and then replaced it with a Little Mermaid costume that she did the same with. I could carry her on my hip until she was 8!

And I do look back fondly at those days, but I kind of found myself enjoying every stage of her growing up pretty much the same. No, actually, I didn't enjoy the 14 year old so much, I would be lying if I said I did. But you know what I mean, I just threw myself into what was going on at the time and never had time to miss the 4 year old Kalyn.

And now she'll be 16 in January. She has a car. And a driver's license, with restrictions, but she drives to her two part time jobs. And she runs Cross Country and is in Journalism. And she has teenage friends and they do teenage things, and I wait up for her on weekends. And I am so much cooler with it all than I ever thought I would be!

Of course I do have an 8 year old, too, (whom I can not carry on my hip!) and I'm sure that softens watching Kalyn grow up. Alina did a birthday party and a hay ride this weekend, and she has a Girl Scout meeting coming up. These are activities of the past for Kalyn, that I still get to be involved with. I still have plenty of Mom time ahead of me!

I never had a clear idea when I was growing up of what I wanted to be when I grew up, save for one thing: I knew I wanted to be a Mom. So here I am, right in the middle of it all.

And I'm taking a moment to be grateful to be here.