All the baby stuff is gone!!

A few months back I remember feeling a tad emotional as we got rid of Andrew's toddler/crib mattress. He is the last baby of the house. He was moving on to a regular twin mattress. 

I started thinking today about the fact that all the baby stuff is gone! There is no evidence in the house of a baby residing here. Well, I guess that is because he isn't technically a baby, he is three and a half years old.  He IS the baby of the house though. Our kids are 13, 12, 10, 6, amd 3 this year. 

I sat here itemizing the missing baby items in my head. No baby matress. No stroller. No little baby spoons. Well I have a few but I use them for my loose-leaf tea now. We ditched the sippy cups well over a year ago along with diapers and pull ups. The nobly was over before age 2. No more carriers, baby toys, attachments for random baby gear. 

What is left? Well, a car seat for at least 7 more pounds and some plastic kid bowls. The bowls will stick around for a while, there is always a good use for a tiny bowl. Recently all the toys moved upstairs. We moved "the baby" into the boy's room and his previous room is more of a playroom now, video games, toys, movies. Of course he still sneaks toys back downstairs but over all it is mostly toy free.

I have to say, as sentimental as it is sometimes, it is nice to have my house back. Don't get me wrong, there are still 5 kids here leaving their stuff all over, but the bonus of my baby becoming a big kid is that my house doesn't have to look and feel like a preschool. 

I miss those enchanted baby days of tiny feet and coos and swaddles, and the scent of baby head as he laid on my chest and I would him the national anthem to him (I have no clue why, but that was what I always sang to him), but I love my baby turned big kid and all the fascinating things he has to say. I love that he dangles from the kitchen sink to rinse his own dishes off and offers to unload the silverware from the dishwasher. I love that he randomly brings me a thoughtful glass of water. I love that he teases me by telling me he is Daddy's Baby, but when alone he hugs me and says he is mine. I love that he made his own peanut butter sandwich yesterday and was beaming with pride. He can buckle himself in, but I like that he can't unbuckle ;-)

I love that he falls asleep watching my iPad.

I no longer have to make sure the diaper bag is set to go as if I am preparing to go camping just to run to the store. All he needs now is a pair of matching shoes (he wore a tennis shoe and a sandal to school a few days ago), whatever, he had shoes on, right? 

The last baby in the house is a big kid now. OK, he is a little kid, but he's not a baby! We are entering the next stage of being parents to a bunch of big kids! He will though, always be "The Baby".