How soon we forget. . .

I'm babysitting today.
All day.
A five month old.
Who's never been away from her mother before.

My youngest is 3 1/2 and I've forgotten all about baby cries, bottle feeding, diapers and stuff like that. The first hour was kind of fun. It was neat to hold a tiny baby again and listen to her little noises.

We're into hour three and she only just stopped fussing. We have 7 more hours to go.

There's a very good reason I'm not having any more children. Even if it wasn't for the fact that I'm just too darn poor to raise a 4th child, I've kind of gotten to enjoy children who can walk on their own.

My oldest two are 19 months apart. I couldn't wait to have another baby after my oldest stopped doing all those "baby" things. After the second one I really looked forward to having the third. And even once I had the third I really enjoy the baby stage and considered having another.

I'm so glad I didn't. Having three kids in 4 years was an awful lot, but more than that, I just couldn't do it again. I'm so happy to have gotten rid of bottles and diapers and exer-saucers.

If ever I had a doubt about whether or not I was "done" this cured it. I'll enjoy my children as they go through each stage of their lives and not mourn for when they were babies and couldn't talk back.

Okay, maybe just a little bit. . .