I’ve been having a blinking problem lately.
Every time I blink, my boys seem to change. There’s nothing gradual about it, and their stairstep ages (20 months apart) doesn’t seem to spread it out at all. They’re neck and neck (literally) in the game of Who’s the Tallest?
Over the summer, constant reassurance was necessary, many back-to-back moments, proving they’d outgrown mom.
Now, in early October, I’ve been left behind. No one even asks anymore. I’m most definitely looking up to make eye contact.
Perhaps it’s this won’t-slow-down thing that has been going on that made it especially painful to find this while searching for an empty hanger in my Laundry Room:
Little bitty ties.
Little bitty clip-on ties.
One of the boys asked for ties for Christmas one year. He wanted to dress like Daddy.
Now they ask for Xboxes.
Again, I was blinking. Blinking back tears.
Their little-boy-ness was gone so fast, and it will never come back.
I want to hold on, and these ties are things I can physically hold.
So I kept one. It’s okay to keep one. The other can go off into Donation Land to be found by someone else’s still-little boy who wants to dress like his Daddy. But I’ll keep this one. Off on the same shelf where I hid the one favorite baby outfit for each. I’ve proven to myself once again that just one little item can bring back all the memories and emotions. No need to keep them all, the one tie does the job this Mama needs it to do.
Okay, now you’ve made me cry…We have the itty-bitty ties, too, and one of our boys is on his way out of them. Sniff, sniff.
Don’t blink again soon they will 19 & counting believe me I know! Not sure the ages of your children but ours are 19,soon to be 18, & soon to be 15!!!!!! Yes I am looking majorly up to one (19 & 6′ 2″) and looking the almost 15 year old in the eye! I am 5′ 9” myself so they had to grow lots to be taller than this mom 🙂 The DD is shorter than us all 🙂
You made me tear up, oh my! My boys are almost 5 and almost 8. I try to make every moment count.
Oh boy, I remember that feeling. Mine is 26 and a world traveler now. Where did the time go?
Sniffling along with you. Hugs~~ My oldest is seventeen and a senior– every age has been more wonderful than the last and I love who he is– but the letting go is beginning and I the sad mixed with the happy is hard.
What a day to read this. My son is turning 9 tomorrow andI looked at some pictures of him when he was a baby. I was melancholy before, now I am teary. I want a dial that I can turn him to be a baby, when I need sleep, I turn him to a 9 year old. Wouldn’t that be great?
My cousin kept her sons’ ties as he grew up. At his graduation party, she had them hanging on a board, and every hour he switched out his tie.. It was a great conversation starter. He had ties of all shapes and sizes, which he wore with a white collared shirt.
Little people. Little People mobiles. Little people worlds. In one container in my garage. When I miss my Littles I go look at that container. One little in college now, one little always busy with friends. I miss my little. But I love my time with my husband all to myself. Little people
I’d saved the fronts of all the kids’ favorite t shirts for years, planning on making a memory quilt for each of them when they left home. Our oldest turned 18 in August and moved to England to finish up his senior year, since it was unexpected, I hadn’t made the quilt yet. As I was looking at the pieces I realized that because of my own clutter journey our kids haven’t had many clothes at a time, the shirts are worn out (fewer clothes, less chaos). I was planning on making a quilt that basically can’t be washed or used because the fabric is on the verge of giving out, I realized that I’d just be passing on a sentimental burden to my boys. So, we got out all three boxes of shirts I’d saved, looked through them, enjoyed a time of reminiscing and took all but three to the fabric recycling bin. We’ll put the ones that are left in picture frames.