Growing Men

Last night at dinner Titus cried, "Ouch!" while eating my chicken and pasta dish.  He winced in pain and said something about his tooth.  He has been telling me how many loose teeth he has in his mouth.  He and Elijah are both on track for braces very soon.  They have space holding retainers in now and soon enough they will both be affectionately known around here as the "Brace Face Boys".

After fiddling around and causing some of us to lose our appetites, Titus asked Shawn to just pull it out.  Shawn obliged.  I rinsed and set it up on the window sill above the kitchen sink.  I've saved all their teeth since the first one fell.  Weird, I know.  But whatever.  In my spare time between now and their graduations, I plan on stringing them a goodbye necklace to take to college.

This morning as I cleaned up the breakfast dishes, the raggedy tooth caught my eye.  Sadness came over me in a nostalgic sort of way.  Soon, I will not be collecting many more fallen teeth.  "It goes by so fast. Enjoy these years." I hear the warnings of mom's who've spoken these truths into my ears when my boys were just babies.  The days were long.  I thought at times they'd never end.  I am happy that I cherished those years and stayed home with them, having pj days and basically just lounging and doing whatever.  I was not into play dates and mom's groups.  It's just not my thing.  Now that they are older and soon we'll have two in middle school and one in high school (Aack!), I'm grateful that I heeded that advice spoken to me long ago.

Braces will soon engulf the remaining teeth, whiskers will appears on what was soft facial skin, and voices that once sang in soprano, will all soon be booming base tones.  It's happening right before my eyes.  And they were right.  It goes so quickly.  As Shawn and I pray for these growing boys to have a deep spiritual understanding of God's love and desires for them, I cannot believe it will be just four and half more years until we are driving Joseph to college. Wow.

Young moms, if I have any shred of advice for you it's this.  Hold your babies tight.  Don't be afraid to say no to things that stress you out and take your focus off of smelling their heads after a bath, kissing their soft skin, snuggling them tightly and for the love, just staying in your pajamas all ding-dong day!