That fatal mom mistake.

Four kids.  Well actually, a new teenager, twin tweens and a toddler.  "Kids" to me falls more in the prek to 5th grade range.  Either way, I just made a fatal mom mistake, again. You would think after three kids, I'd be able to get things right with number four... With Ally, she was that first born prodigy.  She amazed at the milestones she reached so early... that girl was crawling by 3 months, really!  She walked at a week shy of 7 months.  Potty trained in a whopping day.  And I was clueless.  The twins came when she was 18 months old so chaos and sleep deprivation was my excuse, we were in survival mode.  She gave up her crib to the twins and that was it.  She happily embrace big kid status.  The twins, they followed along the same path, walking by 8 1/2 months.  We did the big kid beds shortly after we moved to this house, around 2 1/2-3yrs?  That was a blur, getting them to this milestone was for sanity.  And yet tonight I absent-mindedily did it again. I already changed Rory's room from the sweet puppy nursery to fun outer space (not my fave but I got a cool deal on it all.). Bedtimes have been a nightmare, he hates sleeping in his room.  I think it stems from this last year when he spent almost all year in our room, I can't blame him, going back to a room by yourself seems lonely.  So I found a really awesome Jeep bed that can be a toddler or a twin, did I mention it was COOL?  So for the last 2 weeks I've been thinking of how neat that bed is, how getting him out of the crib would make putting him to bed easier.... Easier on my back, and maybe, just maybe a new cool bed and fun room would make Rory a bit easier to get to bed, in HIS bed...

So I post his crib on a sell site.  And I get a bite.  So just like that I order the jeep and move the crib out of the room to be picked up on Sunday.  Just like that, I make the fatal mom mistake for the forth and my final time... With this milestone it's over, no more "baby".  Call me a sappy sentimental, but if there's one thing I've said this time around, I was finally able to APPRECIATE it.  And here I am, traded my baby in for a big kid.   Why do we rush things?  We beam when they roll over for the first time and anxiously await that first scoot towards crawling.  Cajoling them with toys and high pitch baby talk...  Then it's not enough, we got to try to get that first step... before you know it, they are running from you and the fast forward roller coaster of babyhood just keeps going...  So here I sit typing away while my tiny man child naps on a gigantic twin mattress.  

That's it, no more cribs.  We already graduated to a booster chair from a highchair.  These days are running away from me.   Gone is the tiny helpless infant... My lil snuggle bug makes an occasional visit and the stays are shorter as this great big, wild world beckons to be explored.  And now I'm all fresh out of "baby".  Replaced with a high energy, no fear toddler!  He's cute, I am excited to see this world new again through his big brown eyes, but can we please slow down?