Wanted: Spell to Stop Time

My big girls came home from Europe a couple of days ago, and since they've been back, I have felt so ... "weepy".  I know I say this all the time, but it really does seem like yesterday that they were squishy-faced babies with sticky hands and dirty feet.  Now they're beautiful young women who get all my jokes and smell like flowers.  I love being with them so much.  I love their company.  I love sharing time with them.  Only - there's the part of me that always wants to cry because they're not my babies anymore.

My youngest is 10.  My middle is about to be 13, and my oldest is 16.  For those of you out there who have already gone through it, how do you suppress that selfish part of you that keeps wanting to ruin your present because it misses the past?  I never cared much for growing up.  I've always been a Lost Boy when it comes to all that, and I was just fine being a kid as long as possible.  I didn't really admit to being an adult until I had a child of my own, and then another and another.  However, I discovered the loophole in being a parent that allowed me to still enjoy being a kid by immersing myself in their worlds.  Now that they're done with building forts and finger-painting, I'm starting to panic.  I found another gray hair (that was quickly plucked out) and have noticed that my body is starting to feel less "awesome" than it used to.  I can't deny the cruel progression of time and how it has turned my soft little rosebud babies into world-traveling, goal-setting, dream-catching Wonder Women.

I'm more proud of them than I can express, but there's part of me that misses their littleness.  I'm dealing with it ... I'll get over it, I guess, at some point.  But for now, I'm just so thankful that even though they're growing up, they still enjoy piling up like puppies on the couch to watch a good movie just like when they were little.  They still let me kiss their faces in public, and they still like to play with my hair and do my makeup.  In fact - that's a perk - they don't make me look like a hooker anymore!

As long as some things never change, I may be ok.  Maybe they'll stay Lost Boys with me and when it's time, we can share our fun with the next generation of squishy-faced babies.

And the Wheel keeps turning ...