Stage 2

It is with a few tears in my eyes that I begin this post. All of you mothers out there remember getting ready for you new baby(ies) to arrive. You go to the store and buy stage 1 diapers, pacis, bottles, clothes, carseat. Everything is exactly the right size for your little bundle. You have the thoughts that everything is so small. You can't believe that your baby is going to be so small. And then you have your baby and everything actually seems so big. You have to fold over the diapers, the pacis cover their entire face, you roll up the legs and sleeves of the clothes, and they seem like little peanuts in their carseat. You then wonder how they will ever grow to fit all of this stuff. And then they do. I now refer to that as Stage 1 of parenting. We have officially entered Stage 2 of parenting. We now use stage 2 pacis, bottle nipples, and baby food. He is in stage 3 diapers, and a carseat that he will be able to use until he weighs 65 pounds. All of this has come gradually and I have slowly accepted it, but it's what I did tonight that makes me a little sad. I layed my sweet baby boy down in his crib tonight on the lower level. It is no longer up high and easily accessible. He is getting big enough now that we could no longer keep it there. I know that entering Stage 2 is just the beginning. Soon everything will be Stage 3 and then the stages just go away, and he just gets big. I do have peace of mind knowing that as his mother, as crazy as it may seem, I am still allowed to get a little sad and excited everytime we enter a new stage and begin a new adventure. I just can't believe that he is almost 6 months old, and in just 10 times that length of time, I will be sending him off to kindergarten. Now... that is a day I will spend bawling.