Bye bye babyhood

My son is no longer a baby. I've been denying the evidence for some time, but it's true - he's growing up on me. Yesterday, I watched him pull himself up to the table in the basement, take out some crayons and make marks all over the paper just like he's been doing it forever (for the record - this is the first time other than me practically taping his hands to the crayon a la the Tiger Woods' Saturday Night Live skit that I've ever seen him draw anything.) He also fancies himself as my little helper in the kitchen as he can bring me things on command and put stuff in the trash. Today I took him to Cartoon Cuts for a haircut and when they called out his name, he said "An-ny" all the way back to the chair. Then tonight when I put him to bed, he said "night" back to me as I left the room. Sigh. I love how much more interactive and predictable he is compared to when he was a newborn. And there is no underestimating how great a good night's sleep is, but somehow there is something crushing about knowing that in just 17 years he's going to (hopefully) graduate from high school and leave for college. I know, I'm such a sap.

By the way, the picture above is when he was just a couple days old (hence the jaundice). It makes me laugh since I saw him kicking a football this size just today and it's way smaller than Andy now (thankfully, since giving birth at his current size would be way, way uncomfortable).