Seventeen!

Today I'm celebrating seventeen wonderful years of being a Mum. It's near impossible to believe that the greatest privilege of my life was bestowed on me seventeen whole years ago.

When I first held my baby boy in my arms all those moons ago I felt an overwhelming need to protect him until he grew in to a man and could protect himself. We survived the awful, colicky, scary, ridiculously-tiny-human-being months, he is potty trained, he learnt to walk, learnt to talk, swim, read, write, and hold his own on a calculator.

I watched him achieve all of these milestones one by one whilst in the back of my mind seeing the imaginary goalpost that was adulthood. Adulthood, somewhere in the back of my poor bleach infused brain, meant I'd done my bit, mission accomplished!

(How could I possibly have thought that with the nightmares I have given my poor parents as an adult I hear you mutter!)

That was until about six months ago when he started to shave, drive, and actually look in the mirror! Girls started noticing my beautiful boy and the realization struck that he was now in for a whole lifetime of challenges, and I for a relocation of the goalpost.

Adult issues! Oh my, oh no! he was going to have to face all of the things I had (well hopefully not ALL) and I was going to have to stand by and watch. Payback indeed!

Yes, there is no tah dah! et voila! in motherhood the milestones just change, the protective urge stays forever, and there is no goalpost.

Would I change it had I known? Of course not! I cherish that I will always have these two amazing people that I made (OK minimal credit to Tweedle-Dumb) and get to stress about and plan for. My babies, however big they get (6'5" and counting) will always be the absolute joy of my life and the most wonderful thing that I will ever have the honor to create. Please note that I am saying this BEFORE my second privilege turns thirteen, I can only hope I feel the same in four years time!

Ugh! I think I might have added to my "un-coolness" by writing all of that! I'm not sure when my street cred as a "cool" Mum started to dwindle but I'm definitely losing my touch! The other day I cut a pair of old sweatpants down in to shorts and thought I looked pretty darn cool...that was until I picked up my second almost-thirteen-year-old blessing from school, and she growled "What are you wearing? Get back in the car!"

I can't be that bad, my kids will still choose to hang with me over their friends (as long as I don't wear those shorts of course) and I still get to listen to their stories about the parts of their day that I don't share in. My giant seventeen year old boy still hugs and kisses me and I'm pretty sure he always will. My beautiful tween girl still lets me put together an outfit for her every now and then...

Seventeen years! The absolute best of my life despite a few trials and tribulations along the way, because I have been privileged to create, mould, protect, share, and above all love, as only a mother can. Everyone will tell you to cherish the years when your children are children, I'm not gonna tell you anything different, it's flown by, but they will always be my babies.

Thanks for picking me baby!