Bye bye baby

It doesn't happen right on their first birthday.  It happens in small increments over the second year of their lives.  Their babyhood just slips away...so gradually that it doesn't register with you until have a quiet moment to think.  Owen is going to be my last baby (barring no accidents) and its starting to hit me that a certain era of our lives is coming to an end.  He's crawling and pulling up, but he can't stand on his own yet or walk.  He's not saying much other than "Mama" and "Dada" but he did inform me the other morning that he had pooped by gesturing to his butt and saying, "Poopoo."  He's completely off baby food and he will eat almost anything I put in front of him.  He always wants whatever we have.  Too bad Emmett won't do that.  He's at the age where if we're eating it, he wants no part of it, with a few exceptions like steak and spaghetti.

Soon enough Owen will be walking and talking.  He will eventually give up breastfeeding.  Then he'll need to give up his crib and start sleeping in a bed.  We've already put so much baby stuff in storage: the baby tub, the swing, the bouncer, the baby carrier carseat.  We're keeping all of those things for now, probably to hand down to family.  Its so bittersweet, because having my babies has been the greatest part of my whole life.  But it has also been the hardest thing I have ever been through, and I am 99.9% certain that I never want to go through it again.  Not even to try for a girl, because chances are we'd just have another boy, and I don't think I would be willing to go through it again even if having a girl was guaranteed.

I have to admit, in all honesty, that I have not kept as good records for Owen as I did for Emmett.  I may have lost track of when some of his later teeth have come in.  I'm not sure exactly what day he crawled for the first time (the video camera knows if I just check though).  I'm sure there aren't as many pictures of Owen, and Emmett is in a lot of them.  I guess that's just how it goes with the second child.  But just as your first born holds a special place in your heart, so does your last born.  Both of my boys will be my babies forever.