Baby

What happened to my baby? He's growing up TOO fast - and I realized I just don't have a baby anymore.

Yep - slowly I'd been filtering out bins upon bins of baby stuff, including clothes, blankets, old cloth diapers, bouncy seat/swing, play-yard, etc to my in-laws' house for storage as we prepared our house for showing. My sister got all of her borrowed items returned as well. I long ago returned the bassinet that I crammed D into for way too long - which I borrowed from my boss.

Over the past few days I've been setting aside the baby toys. The rattles, soft toys and teething rings to name a few. I've been stowing the old bottles, the food processor, breastmilk storage accessories and other "kitchen" items in a cabinet and they're about to be boxed.
The baby car seats have been long removed, the padding has even been taken out of our convertible car seats.
I've loaned my exersaucer to my sister for my 5 month old nephew's entertainment.
The Baby Einstein videos will be sent back to Las Vegas for my sister to re-store since she loaned them to D.
Dain and I realized that we can now take the changing pad off the top of D's changing table and store that as well as it hasn't been used for months and months. (He's 33 inches long folks...he can be changed on the floor).
Within the next month - I will be done breastfeeding (still hanging on at night and in the morning but I've gotten the feeling from both D and I in the past few nights that it's time to start the graduation process soon).
D walks everywhere. The only time he crawls now is if he's dead-tired or I'm chasing him around and under the dining room table.

When did my baby get so grown up?

I guess I knew that eventually everything "baby" would be stored away to make room for new (and it's a lot to store). But thinking back to my first few weeks at home with a newborn...I couldn't imagine that it would go so fast. Even after 2 long months of a monitor that limited my mobility with my baby. Even through a YEAR of being up three times a night. Even thinking back on the seemingly unending pumping sessions at work. Even knowing that we had D's pictures taken at Sears/JC Penney every 3 months and I have an 8x10 on the wall to show for each one. It still went faster than imaginable.

I recently bought some teeny tiny gowns for my SOON to come new niece. I couldn't believe how it seems like yesterday I was washing those things every few nights - because waiting for a full load of teeny tiny laundry would mean that D would have to go naked. I started thinking that I need an organized storage system so that I'll be able to find that stuff someday. But it will be awhile.

I look at my living room covered in wooden cars, Little People and musical instruments - watch D dance and clap along to the songs from Special Agent Oso - see the clock when I hear D in the morning and realize that he's made it 7-8 straight hours (remember how I said I was up 3 times a night for a year? this is HUGE) - listen to babbling, DaDa, MaMa, dinosaur roars and car motor sounds - watch D flip through book after book after book after book after book - and I realize that this is sooooooooooooooo much fun. I love it all. I just don't have that "baby" anymore. I have a toddler, though, who will always be my baby.