Sippy Cup Sorrow

  So this week Maizy, my smallest and final child, turned five years old. In my mind five is the cut off for babies. Five is a milestone year. They will start Kindergarten, they will start to learn to read, and they start to no longer look little. The fit throwing has subsided for the most part and she is a kid now, not a baby. I can distinctly remember sitting in my bathroom with the shower on and the sink running to try and drowned out the noise of her screaming for just a few minutes when she was an infant (WORST COLIC BABY EVER) and thinking “I can’t wait until she is the twins’ age!” I have stuck by that feeling all this time. When she went through her “I’m going to throw a fit about everything” phase and her “I don’t want to wear clothes or shoes ever” phase. Also, her “I have no filter” phase which we are still battling now. She has been the child who can’t sit still and the child who won’t give up on something until she has either gotten her way or fell asleep. I have had my patience tested like I never thought I would. Leaving carts full of groceries at the store to take her home, apologizing to countless people in the doctor’s office, even the invention of the Wall of Shame in our house where toys go when she can’t seem to play with them the right way. I have kept my cool for the most part and tried to use those times to teach her right from wrong. I feel like I did my best.

 

Maizy is now the age the twins were when she came along. She is nothing like them, but she is who she is. Looking back though and remembering the last five years I kind of feel like I just won a battle. I feel like I should have been the one who got presents and cupcakes! I made it! I survived! So, why am I sitting here crying over the fact that I just threw away the last sippy cup in our house? Is it because I know she’s my last baby and she isn’t a baby anymore? Is it because I know my rug will probably be ruined in a month? I don’t think so. I think it’s because all the chaos Maizy brought with her when she came into our lives has been what I have loved the most about being a mom. Never a dull moment. Always an opportunity to learn something, teach something, give something. I am going to miss that. The crazy spunky baby who lives in the moment will soon be replaced with the responsible kid who does homework and wants nothing to do with cuddling with mom. At least let’s hope she goes the responsible route! I know I have a lot more parenting to do and it won’t ever really truly end but the end of an era happened yesterday. I have no more babies in this house and I never will again. I’m ok with that. I just need to stop crying over unspilled milk.