Kids, they grow without warning...

Hard to believe my kids are as old as they are. I was talking, okay texting, with a friend today. We were catching up on ages and stages of our kids. She went through a divorce and remarried, she's happy, 3 of her 4 kids are adjusting well. She made the comment that she was a better mom when her kids were little. Now that they are older,teenagers, she feels she's not up to par. I feel her, teenagers are hard. Teenagers are these strange hormonal beings that you will never figure out. Stop trying...trust me, just stop trying. They are weird....they put candles out by holding a baseball over it. Why? I didn't even bother to ask.

This got me thinking...how many of us have babies because we love babies, toddlers, young children? A lot of us, I don't think we look past the early years when we plan a family. I know I didn't. I never thought of my daughter going off to college, never once did the thought of my son being taller than me cross my mind while I was watching him take his first steps. These thoughts didn't come up until it was happening. My daughter is graduating, my son is taller than me. How did this happen? They were just babies, like yesterday. I swear it was last year that they were learning to walk and ride a bike. Now they are almost adults, cranky, moody teenagers. If only they could stay eight years old and ham it up for the camera. They can't, they grow, life changes. Instead they hang out on the side, observing and being moody. Sleeping more than you remember sleeping as a teen, no way could I have slept as much as they do. They seem to consume many pounds of food a day and never gain any weight. They are just strange. Stranger than you ever were as a teen because no way were you that moody and weird. Right?
And of course, you'd never hold up your middle finger and point it in your mom's direction, for any reason....right?