I received a cool, spinning picture frame as a thank you gift this year from one of my Guides. Just a 4×6 thinking of you that remained empty until this week. During my frenzied cleaning binge, I decided to make use of the pictures I uncovered and fulfil this frames destiny. As we don’t print photos all that much any more, the pictures I found were about 10 years old. This was when my babies were closer to babyhood than the adulthood that is speeding towards us with alarming rapidity. My oldest baby is now heading to high school in September. When the heck did that happen ?
In the spin of a frame my baby is getting his first cell phone, having his first crush and his first date, and heading to grade 9. He is spending the month of July at his new high school taking a summer school course which will be his first high school credit. This is the first step away from a childhood that he still has one foot firmly planted in. Though he has sprung to 5’7″ and the voice has dropped to a level of manliness that can no longer be ignored, he’s still my baby.
This is my baby whose bottom I powdered, whose chin I wiped and whose cuddles are slowly being reduced to a quick hug in the morning. My little boy who just last week started kindergarten, just yesterday finished public school and who too soon will be a high school freshman. It’s been that quick and so incredible that 14 years have passed since my ginger-haired string bean started wreaking havoc in my life and laid claim to my heart. My baby, who will always be my baby to me, is a laying claim to his own life now.
I guess it happened between the trips to the farm making animal noises and riding the Behemoth at Canada’s Wonderland shouting like a crazed cave-man. It was always so far off, something that we were planning for but years from now not months, not weeks. This morning a package arrived from his new high school welcoming him to clubs and councils and all sorts of other high schooly things. In the time it took to spin a picture frame, 10 years have passed and high school is here. On my table. Claiming my son for one of its own. I guess that’s when it happened: my baby grew up. Now it’s my head that won’t stop spinning.
