My baby is turning five this week. My second and my last child.
Five. It’s big and no one cares. No one but mom.
Mom, who is 42 and turning 43 soon. No one cares about that either.
I mean, I’ll never be as young as I was when I had a 4 year old.
Birthdays started to be big around here almost seven years ago when our first baby turned one. That was probably the best day of my life. That is how I had described it to one of my oldest friends the next day when she asked how the party was.
“I think it was the best day of my life.”
That was almost seven years ago and my first baby will be 8 years old in a few months but my second baby turning 5 is the big thing this year. Especially because it is two days away.
Smelly diapers haven’t been in our home for a while. We have no baby toys left. And we haven’t had them around for a while. No rattles and no teething whatchamacalits (Sophies!)
These are NOT the things I am sentimental about right now. Nor have I ever been.
Maybe it’s the baby talk that doesn’t exist anymore? I know what he means to say when he says it.
Maybe it’s the second year of kindergarten (for mom and dad) that we are barreling towards?
Maybe I have to start treating my real baby like a big boy.
He will be 5.
This guy gets a full vote.
Well, as full as his big sister. Not full full like they can take us over.
Ah-ha! A reason to not have a third child. The minority (because they are not fully grown) becomes a majority if there were to be three of them.
But he’s his own entity now. He isn’t hanging on to us. He doesn’t look to us to speak up. He doesn’t wait for us to finish. He doesn’t care about our opinions.
Maybe he is just turning into a jerk and it has nothing to do with aging? Nah.
He just knows what he wants.
He said to me a few weeks ago as we were talking about his birthday coming up, “I already feel five.”
Man, did that hurt while simultaneously making me the proudest mofo this side of the LIE. How mature and insightful. He’s five already. Thanks, buddy.
As a neighbor who just celebrated her third child’s 1st birthday and her oldest child’s 9th birthday said,
“Crazy how fast this is all moving”
It is crazy.
We have been acting like a family of three with a baby.
There really are four of us now.
This is Happening 
I was just thinking about this situation I’m in and your article came into the mailbox! Talking about a sign! My baby#1 is turning 5 in few months and I am still being indecisive about baby#2. And I’m not gonna be younger anytime soon(physically, although I can improve the look 😁)
Yes you can indeed!
As for baby #2 I don’t envy you on having to make a very hard decision. And I am not going to sing praises one way or another. The former career coach in me is going to pull out one tip and it might seem cold but did you take out a piece of paper and do a pro/con list? I don’t know if baby making/bringing another human being in to this world for you to take care of is so black and white but a pro/con list, to me, no matter what the decision is about, is a good starting off point. Although some of the pros (and the cons, too) are priceless (pro: someone new to love, con: someone new to worry about forever and ever 🙂 ) and it might seem silly to write them down, I think seeing pluses and minuses in actual print (on a piece of paper or a computer screen) before making a decision truly helps. Good luck!!