When my son was a year old, his favorite book was one titled, My First Book Of Tractors. It is one book that I will never forget as we read it together every single night, sometimes five times over.

At the time I never stopped to just take it all in, I just held hope that eventually he would grow sleepy and near bedtime. I was pregnant with my second child by then and by the end of the day exhausted from being with him all day long. With most days filled with keeping him from climbing on any and every object he could, to reach something that found his interest, or from disappearing on me, he knew how to keep me on my toes.

As he nears the end of his eighth grade year and ready to move onto High School this Fall I can’t help but think of the day I found out I was pregnant with him. The doctor that broke the news to me after I was in there for symptoms of the flu, was the same doctor that told me it would be highly unlikely that I would ever have children after a battle with cervical cancer two years prior.

Being pregnant with him felt like it lasted an eternity at the time. We experienced record heat waves that Summer. I was completing a Senior project for College with a local Boys and Girls club and literally fell asleep in the movie theater while taking children to a movie. Embarrassing doesn’t even describe it! I was never more thankful for air conditioning in my car that Summer, especially since I couldn’t even afford air conditioning in my house. Pretty sure I spent more time in the car than anywhere! I gained so much weight with him I could never find maternity shirts that would cover my whole belly and it was a constant battle pushing him out of my rib cage.

I remember being released from the hospital with him and thinking, are they really going to let me take this little human being home and trust I can take care of him!?! I remember being terrified that I would never wake up when he did. I remember feeling delirious when he just wouldn’t go to sleep and time just drug on and on. Those long sleepless nights felt like they would never end.

Those long sleepless nights soon turned into him climbing into bed with us, every single night. Every night I would lay in bed with him until he drifted off and within a few hours he was there at my bedside. I felt like he was never going to sleep in his own bed and I was never going to get a full nights sleep without an arm being slammed across my face or a foot being dug into my back.

Once the school years started it was a constant struggle to get him to focus and concentrate on his school work as well as homework when he would come home. He wanted to be outdoors, he wanted to play with his tractors.

Now as he nears High School I wish for those long sleepless nights back, I wish for those nights he would crawl in bed with us, and I wish for those nights of reading him his favorite books 100 times over. I don’t get the cuddles on the couch anymore and I don’t get to play with cars and tractors on the floor anymore. He would rather be doing stuff elsewhere and often there are many weekends he is gone at a sports event or doing something with his friends.

Those long sleepless nights feel like they may never end, but minutes turn to hours and hours turn to days and then days turn to years and before you know it you are looking up to him.

Time may seem to stand still and parenting may feel like a blur at first. Bills may pile up and there will be times you feel like the walls are closing in, but always try to keep sight of the little humans growing up in front you.

Careers may be put on hold, but a career can always be picked up where you left off, children can not. 18 years may seem like an eternity, but it will honestly go faster than you perceive.

Take. It. All. In.

Soak up all the cuddles, kiss all the boo boos, get down and play with your kids because the day will come faster than you think when they are too grown up for stuff like that.