I got the "My kids are growing up" blues....

Being a parent is a strange and wonderful beast.

One day you are holding this little tiny thing in your arms and you can't IMAGINE what life is going to be like when they start walking...or talking....

MUCH LESS DRIVING THEMSELVES TO HIGH SCHOOL!!!!

No...Kaitlyn is not my first child to drive herself to school. Kirsten started that last year. Kaitlyn IS my first child to drive her AND her sib to school though.

It was hard enough on me yesterday as I watched Keaton drive off with his dad for the first day of his freshman year....without one moments hesitation I might add. TODAY as he drove off with his sister it was like some HUGE chapter of my life had ended.

SOOO...here I sit...after soaking in the tub for an OBSCENE amount of time...wondering, "What the HECK does a woman who's only goal in life was to be a wife and a mother DO when her last baby enters High School?"

I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW...this is NOT the end of my parental obligations. I KNOW they will still need me...BARELY. I know that the end of a chapter is NOT the end of the BOOK.

I JUST WANT MY BABIES BACK!!!!

And do you know what the real kick in the teeth is. They DIDN'T even look back!!! Oh..wait...they did....they pointed and laughed at me standing on the porch, in my PJs, holding my camera with terrified look on my face and tears in my eyes. No, really....they pointed and laughed....ask them.

Of course...my kids have NEVER looked back. They would leap out of my arms to go into the church nursery. They ran to the bus stop. They jumped out of the car in carpool, waving back over their shoulder as they caught up with their friends. They hugged ME and told ME not to cry when they went off to camp. And now they LAUGH at me as Kaitlyn drives off with my baby boy and leaves me here all alone. I have been told that all of this mean that Jeff and I have raised wonderfully confident individuals.....

Whatever.

If I had known THAT was what we were doing I would have switched tracks and started raising whiny, clingy, Mama's babies!!!

YEAH RIGHT!!!!