A Brief Glimpse of the Future

I’m sort of a middle-ground Mama on this one issue.  I was happy when I was preggers, and happy when we were done having babies.  I found the end of my nursing relationship with each child a little sad, but not traumatic for anyone involved.

When people talk about how amazing it is that children grow up so quickly, I sort of get it, but Buds and I have so much fun together, and each day the children and I have so much fun together, and it just seems to be getting more fun every day, the end of having our children live with us doesn’t seem like it will be so traumatic.

But then, two things happened yesterday:

1)  Noa and I took Mom out for dinner for her birthday, and then we popped over to Barnes and Noble for a look around.  I was standing in line to pay for our books, and was privy to a conversation between a father and daughter.  It wasn’t bitter, it wasn’t angry, it was just so abrupt and disconnected.  The father was asking if the daughter had read a required book for school.  No, she hadn’t, wasn’t going to, she said she’d get the Cliff notes.  Pretty much she was just saying anything she could to disagree with her father and to be a pain.  I really did want to give her a shake.  Her dad maintained his poise, but I think he would have preferred to give her a shake, too.

Buds and I have children who scream with joy when we come home and run up to hug us and tell us we are the best Mommy and Daddy in the whole world.  When does that stop, and can I make it never stop?

2)  Normally Buds puts the Buster to bed at night.  This involves the standard teeth brushing and hygiene items, but then they snuggle in bed while Buddie plays some game on his iphone and the Buster watches until he falls asleep.

With me, it is much more boring, so the Buster prefers Dad, but Buddie is swamped with work right now, so last night the Buster got me.  We snuggled in, and he started telling me about this funny show he saw where people had to get wet and muddy and try and get through a wall, etc.  Very physical humor, and he said he’d love for our family to be on a show like that one day.

Now, I had a book on my iphone I was looking forward to reading.  I was tired, I knew the Buster was tired, but I suddenly had a vision of someday when we offer to snuggle into bed with him, and he says, “No, thank you.”  And that’s it.  We go from a critical piece of the bed time puzzle, to the outside encourager.

So, I put my book down, and settled in to listen to my boy talk about some crazy funny show that made him laugh.  And I was grateful he took the time to tell me.

And then I told him I loved him, and wished him good night.