Watch Out, It Happens Quickly!

This is my baby. Note the cute little dimpled smile, the curly strawberry blonde hair, the twinkle in his eye...

This is my baby. Note the lack of a dimpled smile, the covered up, incredibly straight white-blonde hair and the "mom-you-are-ridiculous" look in his eye. Yup, same kid. Isn't he cute? Time really flies. No, I really mean it. It wasn't that long ago when it was me unpacking my boxes at college. So, here you can see the same kid as in the previous two pictures, but this time with his youngest brother. (Sorry the picture shows his head chopped off, but the focus was on the little guy who enjoys the simple things in life like chewing on hat strings.) Anyway, the littlest bro got to "help" bring the biggest bro to college. We unpacked, got him a job, shopped for missing items, got student id, took him to freshman orientation... All in all, it was a very busy day. Very tiring for the little guy.

The good news is that my baby (the big one) is an awesome young man. I am so pleased that he really knows the two most important things in life. He knows the reality of a loving God in his life and he loves his family. With that in mind, how important was it really that he learned to play a musical instrument? And he did learn how to proficiently do back flips, tucks, and layouts (and whatever you call all those gymnastic moves) which is something I never had envisioned my kids learning. :)

So, you plant an apple seed, you nurture the little tree, you watch it grow and eventually you get what you were expecting when you first planted the seed--an apple tree! This analogy will have to stop here because apple trees don't move away when they are grown up.

But perhaps I can use the apple tree for just a moment more. You know what they say...the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! Below you can see Patchy and his Dad matching stride for stride on campus. Patchy has the sleeping chubby in his arms.

And one day Patchy will be the one dishing out last minute fatherly advice to his own college bound son while his wife cries as she grabs her baby for a too long hug as she realizes that things will really never be the same again.

Waaaaaaaaaah!