Big steps, Little steps

How quickly they grow. And how quickly they grow up. You hear every parent say it and yet it can't be said enough, because no matter how hard we might try there are moments constantly slipping through our hands like the sands of time itself.

When taking Oliver for a ride in his new bike-mounted seat, it struck me that I had probably taken him out in the Wee-Ride carrier for the last time. And when that last time came, some time last summer, I didn't know it had arrived. It was a poignant reflection and one I seem to be encountering often recently.

As I walked up the stairs behind Oliver tonight, I noticed he was no longer stepping up with one foot and then the other onto the same step, but was instead walking up as an adult would, with each new step being trodden by alternating feet. He didn't do it all the way up, but it was a noticeable development. A far cry from when he crawled up the stairs with me right at his back to catch him. And yet it seems not so long ago.

Although Oliver dropped every bottle but his bedtime bottle by around 17 months, he has still been having a bottle of milk in an Avent bottle at bedtime. What is more, despite his age, he has still been having one of us hold it for him and feed him exactly as we fed him as a baby. Consequently, with both kids going to bed around the same time, recently Hayley had to feed them both their bottles simultaneously, one on each knee.

So we decided we would get Oliver a special cup that he would want to drink from himself. Hayley got a rocket shaped cup with a retractable straw that sports a picture of Roary the Racing Car. A brilliant choice.

So last night we let him have this cup and as he sat on my knee drinking his bedtime milk our roles as bottle holders officially became redundant. Again it was a bitter sweet experience to see my big boy growing up and yet to have to say goodbye to a little moment that we shared where he was happily dependent on me. But isn't that exactly what being a parent is all about: learning to very slowly let go. It's just happening so much earlier than I expected and is therfore so much harder than I had imagined.