Time flies when you're having fun

Today my oldest child is 11 years old. I can't believe it. It feels like yesterday that I found out I was pregnant with him. It feels like just yesterday from the day I brought him home to start our new life together. It feels like just yesterday that he learned how to crawl, and walk and say "ma ma".

When I was growing up I remember my mother and my aunts always saying to me "Enjoy every stage of your life while you are living it, because it passes quickly." Ok maybe they didn't say it that refined, they most likely said it like "Jesus Murphy D, stop trying to act older than you are, because before you know it you will be old like us" ..lol. But their point was not taken because I thought they were lunatics. I thought they were old and that when I was their age, I would be waaaay cooler than them.

Well that time has come, and I am officially the age they were when they would tell me to enjoy my youth. Funny how life works. I find myself telling my daughter to enjoy being a little girl because when you become an adult there is no more excuses for being an idiot..lol. Don't get me wrong, there is no shortage of adults acting like idiots, but it's just not that tolerated after the age of 20.

I try to think back today on how young I was. How inexperienced I was about life and motherhood. I thought I had a plan on how life was going to be. I thought I knew everything about how to make my child behave, how to make my child eat healthy and how to make my child love school. I knew it all...except...I didn't know anything. See this is the crappy part about life. When we are young we are full of energy, full of life and we are also full of sh..t..lol. We know nothing about life. We know nothing about parenthood and we know nothing about almost everything. We look at our own parents and think we will do a way better job than they did.

Well now I fast forward to today. Today I think I know a little more than I did 11 years ago. Today I think I know that we can't "make" our kids love veggies. We can't "make" our kids love math homework. I learned that kids become who they were meant to become. They have their own personalities, they have their own likes and dislikes. I learned that even though I think I am "cool", my son may not share that perception of me..lol. I learned that I have become my mother. Yes, I am ok to accept that fact. (Even though Im still way cooler than her..lol).

11 years ago today I was a 26 year old girl who became a mother to a beautiful baby boy. I had fewer laugh lines, I had tighter thighs, and I had firmer breasts..lol. But 11 years ago I didn't know how to stop a bleeding nose, I didn't know how to bring down a rising fever, and I didn't know how to deal with my child asking me why I lied about telling him there is a Santa and a tooth fairy. Now...I am a pro..lol. At least I think I am?

I think I have learned a little along the way. I think I picked up some good tips and bad tips. Some good tricks and some pretty bad tricks. But the truth is, I am still learning every day. I still have time to learn the stuff that is coming my way. I have accepted the fact that my kids are growing up, and so am I.

The great part about life is that we don't even realize things are happening until they are gone. We don't realize all the lessons, all the wonderful things we are teaching our kids until we see them doing it. We don't realize that life's lessons are best learned when we don't see them. They are learned and remembered once they have passed and left a small imaginary imprint in our minds...we don't remember it at the time, because time flies when we are having fun!

That's my peace today!