Growth Spurts

How is it that one day your child is a baby with chubby thighs and the next thing you know they are wearing pants that are too short for them? I have watched both Tess and Owen go from my breast-feeding infants to these mini-adults, with thoughts and feelings and moods. Lately, Tess and Owen have been trying out new phrases, like "isn't that cool?" or they mimic me by saying "isn't that a good idea?" Even Axel has joined in on the game, and I am panicking, as I watch my sturdy 2-year-old boy, still soft and warm with those baby thighs, take a stand and say, "Mommy, isn't that cool?" He wants to join the "big kid club" so badly. I watch as the three of them interact with each other, and separately. In the morning, Owen is the first one off to school, courtesy of the bus. He has this wonderful bus driver who is so patient with the kids. I am always giving him fresh-baked cookies or cupcakes if I was baking the day before. All I can think when I see him is that he must be up at the crack of dawn to pick up all the other kids and be at our house by 7:30 a.m.! Then we go through the morning goodbyes, and lately, Tess has been very affectionate with Owen, asking him for a hug and saying "I love you, Owen!" as he leaves. Axel gets right in there too, almost pushing Owen over as he runs up to them so he can hug him goodbye. Then I walk Owen out to the bus, the other two trailing me out onto the front steps. Some days Owen is in a good mood, and other days he cries that he doesn't want to go to school. Those are the days I pick him up, all 50 pounds of him, and carry him right onto the bus. Then we wave goodbye to all the kids, with the double wave. Every now and then I will get a smile out of the other kids, and some days, Owen will even smile. Most of the time, he puts his head down, or looks the other way. It's that time of day, when he leaves, that I wonder what he is thinking. Is it hard for him? Or does he not think about it at all? Does he just live his life in the moment and at that moment he is just on the bus?

Lately, as I see them change and grow, I'm most astounded by the clothes they seem to outgrow so fast. I keep putting the same clothes on, thinking the clothes must have shrunk, but it's the other way around. I notice Tess has grown legs, and Axel has sprung up almost to Tess's height, and Owen has become a grown boy. He no longer has any little boy look about him. I'm almost afraid I'll start seeing facial hair soon (or other hair that I am not prepared to deal with)!

Where did the days go? And still, still, I find myself not paying attention: laundry, dishes, work, phone calls, doctors appointments, homework. They grow incrementally as I busy myself with chores. They sprout up like weeds when I turn my back. They are growing up, and soon they will grow away. I am trying so hard to memorize them, to keep these days with me, but they float away as quickly as the bubbles we play with in the backyard. One day soon, the toys will be outgrown and the house will be quiet, and I'll have all the time in the world to deal with laundry and dishes and work and phone calls...