The baby years

My sons 2nd birthday is in 10 days and suddenly it seems like my children are growing up so fast. He is officially done teething and has started potty training. My daughter picks out her own clothes and can dress her self. She asks me questions about metamorphosis. He asks us to play trucks with him and tells us when he's hungry.These milestones are wonderful and amazing, I am so proud of them. They are becoming more self sufficient. Everything suddenly feels manageable and easy.We have so much fun together.
So with this seemingly sudden freedom comes a strange feeling of space in my life. A space that I prayed I would make it to in the days that I had two kids under two years old in diapers. A space I prayed for when one I finally got Forest to sleep through the night and Violet was up teething. A space I knew was far off when we decided to have our children so close together. A space I have worked hard to get to.
So here I am. Violet is close to the end of her first year of preschool and Forest only has another year before he starts. I have been able begin building a successful Massage and Polarity Therapy Practice and I love my work. Everything is going along according to plan. (literally, I have a detailed plan) So why does it feel so strange?
I have an this constant and overwhelming awareness that time is passing. There has always been the small possibility that we would decide to have more kids, but mostly we've thought we were done. And honestly I don't think that has changed. But Forest's birthday seems to mark this as a certainty that feels so concrete, so absolute. We are moving on to the next chapter in our stories and perhaps it feels strange to move out of an era we have been so completely enveloped in. I can equate it to driving on a highway, focusing so hard on the map and suddenly looking up to find you've arrived.
The chaos of teething and diapers, baby food and sleep training is behind us. Our life has slowed down enough that I am able to appreciate our children in a new relaxed way and really enjoy this time with them. But as we move forward into this exciting new time we are leaving behind those toothless grins and fuzzy baby hair. We are leaving behind first words and steps and moving towards first soccer goals and sleepovers. We are moving forward while fondly looking back. We are moving away from the baby years and I can not believe that its going by so fast.