Growing up....

I am in the middle of painting our kitchen cabinets and I have to say it is going quite well. (knocking on wood!)

I am now dealing with a bittersweet parental moment. *sniffle*

When we first moved here (into our house & to SC) Nate was about eighteen months old and then found out I was pregnant with Spencer. Nate was always hanging around me in the kitchen (He was my pots & pans kid. Give him one with a wooden spoon and he was good to go!) pulling drawers out and rummaging through everything. I read somewhere to make a drawer just for your children; you know one where they could keep some fun stuff to play with while you worked in the kitchen. That is exactly what I did; it started out with some Play-Doh cans, then on to the small toys that they would receive from fast food restaurants. The drawer worked like a charm, he knew he could go in there, not get in trouble, and have a place for all his cool finds. As Spencer grew, he too knew that he could keep his toys and fun finds in the drawer. I think we cleaned it out about twice, that was because there was so much stuff in there that it would not close. *giggle* When I would find small toys about the house not sure where they should go, I opened the drawer and placed them inside.

The boys are now older (9 & 11); they do not go into the drawer as much as they once had. I removed the drawer to unload the contents and was hit with a flood of memories. The boys to their horror, wanted to know what I was going to do with “their” drawer. I explained that they never really use it anymore, the drawer needs to be painted and it is just time for all the stuff inside to be removed. They rummaged around at what was inside and both pretty much concluded that it could all be donated.

So, they are growing up. >sigh<

It is wonderful to watch them grow up as a parent but at the same time it sure does pull at those heartstrings.