bye-bye baby

Well it happened...I have given my baby his last bottle...last night. he has not looked back. Instead he has steamed ahead full speed careening out of the garage tonight on a scooter-with excellent balance I might add.

How could this have happened right under my nose? He is 28 months old now, still a baby, right? Anyhow this milestone with each of my boys hit me hard. Aleks was only 15 months. I can still see him on my lap shoving his nighttime bottle to the side. Luke gave me a few more months at 18 months. But since they were all almost a year old when they joined our family, that was a whole year we missed.

I know in the long run I have it easy. None have ever had a pacifier that I had to creatively pry out of their hands without permanently scarring their self image. They only ever really took one bottle a day, nighttime snuggles. They are all terrific sleepers even if my 5 yr old springs out of bed by 6:15 every morning! I guess time just got away from me and I had 16 awesome months of bedtime bottles.

Maybe its the fact that I see them all growing up so fast. Maybe its the fact that I got an order form for a yearbook for my kindergardener---really a yearbook??? Maybe I can hear the tick tock of the clock for the next milestones to hit, I will have 2 boys in full day school next year, Luke is nearly reading, the baby counts to ten, Luke has his first dance recital in June, Aleks will "really" be swimming this summer, how long will I be able to keep spiderman in his crib...Yikes before I know it, it will be learners permits and college applications!

I think the thing that scares me most, though is Potty training---on tap for the warm weather---this is by far my least favorite stage, although once complete, life gets a bit easier.