Form, Mary Pope Osborne

I remember him. Now, he’s almost as tall as me.

I found a love note from The Baby to his grandmother and it was signed, “Form G.”
Every one of my kids has gone through the Form/From stage and it’s one of those things I don’t correct because I find it so darn cute.

The note was next to a Magic Treehouse book. If you have children or have ever spent time in an primary school classroom, you are intimately familiar with these Mary Pope Osborne mysteries. My Middle One devoured them and now the kindergartener is smack in the middle of his MTH phase. They love them because they’re fun and, “so easy, mom!”.

Seeing these two things this morning startled me because, as with many days this year, it hit me, like a truck. All these sweet baby phases, the forms and the “chapter books”, they’re on their last round.

I know, there is still goodness ahead, but the simple joys of young kids are quickly being replaced by the more complex and often rich experiences of having older children and I don’t want to miss a second of these waning baby days.

So yesterday, when The Middle One reminded me that he and I “usually” have Valentine’s Day dates, I rearranged my schedule to ensure that happened again today. I started the tradition of Him being my Valentine a few years ago when he was fighting the Middle Kid Green Kangaroo pretty hard. It’s is one hour, once a year where he gets me and we go wherever he wants to go. I didn’t think we’d do it this year. After all, he dropped my hand the other morning walking into CCD when we saw his friends, so I know it’s a matter of (not enough) time before he’s no longer requesting time with his mom.

So when he reminded me last night, “Mom, you’re my Valentine, remember? How are we going to work that out?” I didn’t hesitate for a second to “work it out”.  A client rescheduled, thank goodness and all the rest can be moved around. The work can wait an hour. The errands can wait an hour. This time, moves so fast that I need to do whatever it takes to be in as many moments as I can catch.
I need all the love form them as I can get while it’s still as easy to get as a Magic Tree House is to read.