all those years

This morning it hit me.  I was in the car-rider drop-off line where I have been for many of the last 11 years, and I looked over at the boy-man sitting in the passenger seat beside me, and said, "This is it."  Only twice more (actually once, since he managed to get detention tomorrow) will I ride through the line and deposit him in the parking lot.  My mind flashed back to the first time I dropped him off there.  He was 4 years old, probably not 40 pounds, still in a carseat, and his little XXS shirts were too big. 

And now, ten years later, he sits there listening to his iPod on the way to school.  He has  hairy legs and always looks like he missed something when he shaved. 

So where did those years go?  They have vanished in the blink of an eye.  Where did that little boy go?  Where did this man-child come from?

It didn't hit me last year when my oldest finished eighth grade.  Perhaps I was just too stressed with all the other stuff going on in my life right then.  Or maybe there was the knowledge in the back of my mind that it wasn't the end...I still had one more year.

How much of my time has been spent at that school the last 11 years?  How many hours have I sat waiting in line there to pick-up or drop-off?  I have celebrated most of the "lasts" this year.  Last registration check.   Last tuition payment.  Last field trip payment.  Last "Living Faith" sheet.  But tomorrow is another "last".  His last school Mass.  This I must pack kleenex for.  I have taken the morning off, so that I can attend.  And just like that, we move on to another chapter in our lives.

Moms of littles...enjoy it!  Savor it!  It passes way too fast!