What's next? University?

Sigh, I know it's cliché to say this, but they really do grow up so fast. I'm feeling a little blue because tomorrow is a big day for Kaylin - she's trying her first nibble of "solid" food. It's hardly any more solid than the breast milk she's been subsisting on for the past six months, but it's a major step towards eating real adult food. Soon she'll be trying sweet potatoes, peaches, and apples.

Even more so, it feels like a step away from me. Sure, she still needs breast milk every day. But every morsel of solid food we add to her daily repertoire means she's that much closer to weaning off the breast. And weaning means the slow severing of that oh-so special bond that only she and I share. That makes me so very sad.

That makes me so very sad.

It's like the first time I actually watched her daddy give her a bottle of pumped milk. I started sobbing. Why, she didn't even need me to be there! She didn't even seem to notice that I wasn't the one feeding her. She looked so happy to be gulping back this bottle that daddy was offering. Sure, it was me in that bottle, but I wasn't there to hold her in my arms, stroke her golden hair, or stare at her beautiful little face as she drank. And she didn't look up at me with her yummy smile when she was done.

So, tomorrow, I will fight back the tears as my little angel has her first taste of rice cereal. I will try to celebrate this milestone with her and cheer her on as she experiences this new sensation. And when her little tongue first pushes that foreign bit of mushy goo out in disgust, my heart may do a secret little dance of joy.