I couldn't have imagined how FAST my children would grow up. Even hearing the 'old ladies' tell me over and over, "Enjoy them now, they grow up so fast!" or my favorite, "Your kids are at the perfect ages!" Did she know they were 11, 8, 4 & 1?? I looked at her like she had 5 heads. What did she know? She had teenagers!

I would NEVER be done changing diapers...and, then I would NEVER be done potty training!

By that time, there was another in diapers, and the trend started over again...and I wasn't enjoying it. I wanted them to be older, bigger, wiser, more helpful, <---as in tying their own shoes! They'll NEVER accomplish that! They'll wear velcro into adulthood like George Costanza!

Alas, we bought our first pair of lace up shoes, just in time for the third child to be born after conquering potty training the second time. How in the heck did I get three kids when I was supposed to have a baby learning to crawl?

Wait...How did that baby get to be old enough to be attending elementary school already!? Probably the same way it was time for baby #4 to be born....

Time was moving so fast...

Those 'old ladies' voices were ever present in my head. Along with all the questions about growing children...As they developed through elementary school and figure out their 4th grade teacher is not letting them learn algebra and you decide the best education for him is homeschooling.

Then, there's the "What do you mean my 2nd grader doesn't have a learning disability? I suppose I have to homeschool him TOO!? Fine, I'll teach him cursive.

Wait...."Honey, not EVERYTHING needs to be written in cursive...erase your crossword and print the words, while I change your little brother's wet underwear because he's not potty trained yet..." and I thought those days would last for ever, and ever, and ever! But they didn't. I'm living proof that babies turn into teenagers.

I never thought I'd see the day.

The day my first son attends a public middle school, then he earns Eagle Scout, graduates high school and moves 2000 miles away to college! (Thank you for that gasp--I did a lot of that) What a wake up call! That teething, crawling, saggy diapered baby is living in his own dorm room in Texas!

Here I am, typing the week after my challenging, 2nd son, a student with asperger's, graduated with "High Honors" from a public high school.

Yes, I am THAT mom. The one who didn't believe the 'old ladies' with 5 heads. I have become the 'old lady' at the ripe age of 42. As I learn that dabbing isn't all about drugs...it's a copycat move from a football player that swept the nation and it's ever present in my living room at any moment of the day.

I can't wait for YOU to become "THAT mom"...and you find yourself speaking in hashtags just to have a conversation with your teenagers, realizing it's been over a decade since you've changed a diaper~