Grown Up

Several years ago, I went through that time in life when it seemed that everyone was getting married.  Summers were busy traveling to friends' home towns to join in the merriment, and carefully saved money was spent on flights, hotels, shower gifts and bachelorette parties.

Now, we're in that new stage of life when everyone is having babies.  While we're moving past the giving of wedding gifts, the time for giving baby gifts has taken its place.  I can't walk through Target without stopping in the baby section to browse the newborn stuff and if I happen across something adorable, pause and think "now who do I know who has a baby that this would fit?"

Last summer, one of my oldest friends announced that she and her husband were pregnant!  She's certainly not the first (nor the last) friend of mine to have a baby, but she was the first one to go through pregnancy while living in close proximity to me!

Over the past several months, I've watched as her belly grew, listened as she shared the woes of pregnancy, and tried to wrap my brain around the fact that she was going to be a mommy!!!

Finally, on Sunday, her little one made his big debut!!!

Ben and I ventured to the hospital on Monday to see our dear friends and to meet their little bundle.

As we sat in the tiny hospital room with them and I held their baby in my arms, studying his precious face, his slender legs, and his baby toes, it suddenly hit me - we're grown up!  

I remember when we'd have sleepovers, talk about boys, chat for hours on the phone, and flip through the pages in our yearbooks deciding who our future husbands would be.

Now, suddenly, there I was, with someone that I've known for almost 20 years, holding her baby!

It got me thinking - I wonder if I'll ever truly be able to think of my childhood friends as adults.  When you've known someone since elementary school, do you ever stop picturing them as your friend in the hallway, passing notes and gossiping about what had just happened in class?

Is it possible to really ever think of them as a grown up, and not just someone playing house?

It's something I've struggled with over the last few years, as more and more of my friends have "grown up" before my very eyes.  I happily receive birth announcements, see pictures of their families on Facebook, watch as the kids grow like weeds, but I always seem to think of my friends as they were when we first met - perpetually 8, 10, 15, 18...you get the idea.

Perhaps I'm destined to be the old lady who sits around spouting off about "I remember when..." to anyone who will listen. 

In any case, it's a welcome challenge - I'm blessed to be in touch with so many friends from my youth and to be able to say to them "remember when..."

Me with Baby Jace!!!