The Last Last

(Daddy blogs)

As parents, I reckon we should be pretty good with our children's milestones. The first roll-over, the first walk, the first word uttered, the first tooth dropped, the first day at school... even the first tooth that I had officially yanked off in my life. And it was painless, as Ayd will attest to.

But as the monkies get older, I have noticed something. While the first firsts were met with feverish excitement, it is the last lasts that leave me with a tinge of inevitable sadness.

Take some of the monkies' old clothes for instance. Stacks of old clothes that they have since outgrew have been sitting idle in my cupboards for a long time. And they are piling up.

As much as I would love to see Ash or Ayd wear his 4T clothes one more time, the reality probably dictates that it is time to move on. Because one of those realities as a parent is that my kids are not getting any younger and as much as I try to hold on to pieces of the past - like this cute romper of Ale's - we are never going backwards.

So every time now when Ale passes a milestone, I know these are the sort of things that just are not going to happen ever again. Just like how she has successfully gone diaper-free during the times when she is awake.

The last time when it happened to Ash and Ayd, I knew it would not be the last time that it happened. With Ale around, it was sort of a given that I would be going through the same thing a couple of years later. So when Ash and Ayd went diaper-free, I did feel like they were getting older and there were hi-fives all around. But now that it is Ale's turn? Oh man, it is a totally different feeling altogether.

Maybe it would be different if there was a fourth kid? But there is NOT going to be a fourth. So every time a milestone passes by Ale, I can be certain that that is going to be the last time it happens in our family.

Sure, there will be a lot more last lasts - university, girlfriends/boyfriends, getting married, having kids of their own (not necessarily in that order, I know) - I just don't know that I am ready for the current ones quite yet.