The Day is Coming...

Last night or maybe the night before, Geoff made two woggles, one for each of our older boys.  (For those of you blissfully ignorant of Scout fanatic ways, woggles are handmade devices used to secure a neckerchief around the Scouter's neck).  As my fantastically skilled husband held his pair of woggles up for my admiration, I remarked that there was only one thing wrong with them.

"You only made two."

See, while Daddy has been at work and Mommy has been teaching, cleaning, cooking, cleaning, teaching, and drinking coffee, Luke has been doing the inevitable.  He's been becoming a Big Kid.  This is a very good thing, of course.  As often as I remind Luke that he will always be my baby, I would have it no other way.  He is growing up, just like he's supposed to do.

But this means that two woggles probably won't be enough.  It also means we're going to have buy another Star Wars Lego pack "with Star Wars Lego guy" and pull out the Darth Vader cake pan in a couple weeks, because our baby wants a Star Wars birthday. It means when three children make fishing poles out of sticks and rope, I have to make a fourth.

No, I get to make a fourth.  And then I get to witness the miraculous moment of a little boy crossing a large back yard to join his siblings as they "fish" in the grass from a fallen tree, announcing proudly as he walks, "I have fishing pole!  I have fishing pole!"

As if that wasn't enough, I get to hear the answering call of an older brother.  "You have a fishing pole, Luke?  Come fish with us!"

Observing all of this gave me a sweet foretaste of years to come, when Luke will have fully transitioned into a Big Kid who doesn't have to wait till Mom has her coffee in hand to go outside to participate in sibling endeavors.  As the four of them climbed all over that fallen tree, I imagined them all a little older - playing together, building secret worlds of fantasy and adventure, laughing, shouting... making the neighbors shake their heads (hopefully in wistful enjoyment) at their antics.  I caught a glimpse of a beautiful childhood upon which they will look back in their older years, a childhood shared with amazing, dynamic, wondering companions.

Luke isn't a full-fledged Big Kid yet.  I still accompany him outdoors.  I still keep him in my field of vision.  I still prohibit him from some activities for which he is not quite old enough.  But the day is coming, and I await it with joy even as I cherish the memories of my baby boy and revel in his transition into the realm of Big.