They Say It's Your Birthdays...

We've spent the last couple of weeks preparing for and celebrating birthdays. Our kids' birthdays and the 21st birthday of their uncle, my youngest brother. It's been busy and fun and lots of blissful family togetherness. This realization hit me the other day: our youngest child is now the age that my youngest brother and third youngest brother were when my hubby and I married. Mind. Blown.

Time flies. Rattles, teething toys and picture books (for which we snuggle to read together) give way to action figures, dolls, and chapter books (which they'll read more independently). Some of those fun preoccupations will eventually succumb to music that I may or may not be with-it enough to listen to and make-up and (dare I say it?) first cars and jobs. I try to live in the moment, to be ecstatic and present in where we are right now. But I know that day is coming. I know it will be here in the blink of an eye, because it seems like just a blink since my youngest brothers were the ages our children are now.

While I do sometimes miss the younger versions of our kids, I revel in who our beloved Bebes are and who they are becoming. They are loving and kind, smart and funny, observant and imaginative. I am consistently aware, with every atom that is me, that the greatest gifts of my life are these two, stunning little people. How wondrous that I get to share in their journey... and that I have the humbling privilege of them calling me "Mom".