Thank Goodness I Have Three

I always knew that one day my child would venture out on his own and leave me pining away for the days when he was little and sheltered under my wing. Of course I always imagined that it would be when he was a tall, strapping young lad with a hint of peach fuzz on his lip, not when he was only six and a half years old.

Connor surprised us all yesterday when he enthusiastically accepted Gong Gong's lighthearted invitation to sleep over at his house. At first we all thought that he didn't understand fully that he would be going alone, that Mommy and his baby brothers would be staying home. But after I asked if he wanted Benji to go with him, he said, "No, just me, Gong Gong and Pau Pau." So after dinner, we packed his swim trunks, karate outfit, pillow and soft cat. And before I knew it, he was happily rolling out the door with his Scooby Doo Mystery Machine suitcase towed behind him and a favorite book and car in the other arm, heading for Gong Gong's car. He had absolutely no reservation whatsoever.

A tear or two (from him, not Mommy) would have been nice. I suppose this is what I can come to expect from my boys, my first taste of the empty nest. Oh, how fast they grow up. But, I've still got my two little ones clinging to my apron strings, at least for the next three years...