When my older daughter was a teen and invited over a posse of girls, I was always amazed by just the size of the girls — so much young female energy and just so much talk! They eat like crazy — and then eat like crazy again — but they’re just so darn enthusiastic, just so darn happy to be testing out the world.
Last night at our house, the six young teens, buoyed by a balmy early summer evening, slept outside. Why not? Under the stars, I could see my breath.
On the same day, the neighbors’ celebrated their four-year-old’s birthday. In the afternoon, he began riding a bicycle with training wheels. When my teens eat and eat, when I’m mired down in the complexities of living with teens, I remind myself that those sweet sippy cup days have now passed me by.
Tired, the girls struggled in bedraggled in the morning, hungry for waffles.
I emerge
from the museum
at dusk —
the blue Nile
floods over.
— Fumi Saitō
Stony Soil Vermont 
We just tossed our last sippy cup a few months ago. Given my daughter’s fine motor skills maybe that was premature. Every step down this road is the last time for me as a parent. So much of my life since 1995 has been spent here it has been hard to let go.
I completely get that…. on the other hand, it’s incredibly gratifying to actually a child to adulthood and think, Wow!
A local server told me my 23 year old son was a gentleman and that was gratifying. I cannot say I was proud because I did not do that; he did that. My Grandfather would have been so pleased if he had still been alive to hear that.