Not cool, not cool at all.

See those high waters up there?  They belong to Oliver and are making me real sad today.  Not because he could pass for Erkel but because its proof he is getting so big.  I bought these jeans for him not even a month ago and he is already outgrowing them.  I don't know what happened but overnight he has sprouted up about 2 inches.  Maybe a diet of Poptarts and Cheezits really do supply all the nutrition they need?!

Little by little his baby features are going away and being replaced by this smart, funny, grown up little boy.  Sometimes I can look at his fingers and toes and see what they are going to look like on the 15-year-old version of him.  I can almost picture his lanky, little legs hanging out of the bottom of athletic shorts after a sweaty baseball practice.  Is this how my mother-in-law still sees her "little boys"?  Do you forever see them as just a bigger, hairier version of the 4 year old them?  I think I will.  

I want to just stop the clock for a little while.   Take all the to-do's off my list and just be able to really appreciate where we're at.   I don't want to be caught up in cleaning, cooking, driving, stressing, and doing but instead focus on those (not-so-) little (anymore) hands and feet and remember that one day I won't have them around my house anymore.   I guess its the same as how you see your spouse every day but life is so busy that you don't even realize how much you both have changed until you look back at that photo album from the first year you were dating.  You both die at how much older you've gotten and how happy and naive you look back then.  Not to mention how shocking it is that your husband fell in love with you at all considering your hair then!!   

Distractions help you miss the subtle changes so you can really appreciate the mornings when clothes don't fit and tiny hands don't fit as tiny in yours.  They give you a chance to really see how far things have come but, its still not cool.  My little Oliver is about to leave little boy land for good and it'll be no time before he strolls down to breakfast listening to his iPod and texting on his Blackberry.   I won't even realize how much time has gone by the morning I wake up and help him move into a dorm.  Not cool at all.  So when we go to the mall to replace his jeans once again I will try not to focus on how irritating it is to shop with children.  I will not lose it when I have to ask him for the 5th time to stand still and look in the mirror.  I will try my hardest to enjoy the moment even when its not enjoyable, remembering that these times are as fleeting as the jeans I bought him a month ago.  And speaking of fleeting so were these Oreos...pure, chocolate joy.