Babies Don't Keep.......

My oldest is going to be attending the babysitter's course tomorrow. She will be in 6th grade this coming fall. We have already had 'the talk'. When did I get old enough to need to have that talk with MY children? When did I become old enough to have a daughter who could start caretaking for other people's children.....it doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I was doing that myself! I have Facebook friends who I babysat or whose siblings I babysat! Where did the time go?

My 'baby' is 4 yrs old and will go to preschool in the fall with her siblings. All 5 will be in the same school building next year . As I was looking at our littlest, it suddenly dawned on me how much bigger she is, she has a beautiful face, but its not a baby-face anymore! She is tall, hasn't nursed for two years, has a great vocabulary, even corrects people when they don't use proper grammar--even though she, herself, still uses the word "mine" for "my"......

Where has the time gone?

It reminds me of this poem I've had saved.....I don't remember where I got it from, or why, specifically, I saved it. But it is tugging at my heartstrings again:

Mother, oh mother, come shake out your cloth!
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up the bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's in the nursery, blissfully rocking!

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy blue
(Lullabay, rockaby, lullaby loo)
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo)
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo)

Oh, cleaning and scrubbing will wait until tomorrow,
But children grow up, as I've learned from my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs.
Dust, go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby. Babies don't keep.

1958....Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

(emphasis mine)