Letters to my children

Haven't you heard every mom say "kids grow up too fast!" We all hear that! That's because it's so true, sniff, sniff. Raising kids is such a constantly changing experience that it's easy to forget different stages that you think at the time you could never forget. (That is the main reason I do this blog, so I can remember what happened with all of these pictures and stages...instead of hoping to one day scrapbook them and hopefully remember the milestone, the story, the details, etc.....ya know, years down the road when I actually make time to scrapbook). In addition to this blog and my personal journal (which I need to get on the ball with keeping up on), I have baby books for all of my kids. I haven't been perfect at keeping up on those, but I do try to record most of the milestones; keep a little sample of their hair from their first haircuts (yes I do!); and fill out as much as I remember to. Today I was in the boys room and for some reason the thought came to me to get out Julien's baby book (since he was the only one in there with me). He is a pretty sentimental kid so he sat there and oohed and awed with me. He loves when I tell him stories of when he was a little younger. So as we were going through his baby book we came to a page with an envelope labeled, "a letter from Mommy." We opened it up and although it had been 4 years since I wrote the letter, I wasn't surprised to see how long it was. I had written a 4 page (2 pages front and back) letter to my little 2 year old. I don't know how to write a short letter (kind of like I don't know how to write a short post)! I asked him if he wanted me to read it to him and he said yes. As I read the letter I began to swell up with tears. I had written things about Julien at age 2 that I haven't thought about in so long and would have probably forgotten if I hadn't read that. Oh the memories! Then Julien looked at me and hugged me and said, "Mom, I'm sorry for growing up." I went from teary to saying loudly, "NO!!! Don't ever say that!! I love this big boy Julien as much as I love that baby Julien! etc." Then I felt bad that he felt bad for growing up! I tried to explain to him that all mommies and daddies get a little sad about their kids growing so fast, but that doesn't mean we are sad that they are growing up and that we DO want them to grow up and we love them just as much! Reading those memories just reminded me how fast life goes by and how quickly these little babies grow up; it's bitter/sweet and I could not hide those emotions while reading that to him. Anyway, moral of the story: take time to write my kids more letters and record the little things they do, because no matter how much I think I will remember all of the little things, I probably won't. Geeeesh, I love being a mom!!!!!!!!