Where Is My Baby?

This has been one of those weeks when Dash has just grown up way too much! I have been ahead of the game on almost all of his developmental stages...I had the exersaucer and highchair clean and ready to go before he needed them, teethers in the fridge before he cut his first tooth, clothes washed in the next size that he would need, etc., but I was totally unprepared when he decided he wanted to sit like a big boy at the kitchen table this week. There was no booster seat in sight, but the fact that his head only just cleared the table didn't deter him. And the amazing part is that he did not throw any food or his sippy cup. I am reminded of a post that I can't find right now by sixandthecity about giving her twins real cups as opposed to sippys and, as Maria Montessori predicted, they reacted beautifully to the new responsibility.

My major problem with this is that babies don't sit at the table...toddlers do! Maybe this isn't true, but it is an idea that I have in my head. And since I know Dash is still a baby, I arrive at mutually exclusive conclusions. As I explained the situation over the phone to Dash's Grandpa, he seemed to understand. He said: "It is like when your 25 year old daughter calls you to tell you that your grandson is growing up so quickly. Before you know it, he will doing the same thing to you!" Well, that about put me over the edge--Dash, having babies?!?--but I see his point that it seems like only yesterday to him that I was the one sitting in a highchair.

As a new Liturgical Year dawns and we prepare to begin Advent tomorrow it is a good time to reflect on the passage of our time here on earth and the dizzying speed with which it seems to pass. The Gospel reading from Luke for both today and tomorrow is extremely timely:

Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.

As I struggled this week to clean the house after being gone for two weeks, cook for a dinner party for 16 last night, and get boxes of Christmas decorations down from the attic at 7+ months pregnant (no small task!) while Mr. Incredible was out of town, I thought about how easy it is to let the anxieties of daily life and the secular aspects of the holidays obscure the more important things. Two of my favorite Catholic mom bloggers have touched on this subject, examining the difference between entertaining and hospitality, and noting that simpler IS better this Advent season if it means more time with family and in prayer. So as we prepare to begin again the Church year with the season of Advent, and, for some of us, with growing babies in the womb, I pray that we remember to treasure every moment with our little ones as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ from the humblest of all women.