This is how most of Jack’s sentences, texts, and basic questions begin:

Mom! Can you fill my water bottle?

Mom! Can you start my car?

Mom! I’m starrrrving!

Mom! What’s for dinner?

Mom! Can you make pancakes & bacon? (this goes on all day, not just breakfast)

Mom! Can I send you a link on Amazon? (for whatever item crossed his mind today)

Mom! Is my laundry done?

…and this does not include all the “I need…” sentences, texts, and basic questions.  Those items I could list forever.

Right now, mid-day as I am working away in my office, five different friends have come into the house, said hello and proceeded to go downstairs. I have a finished basement with a bathroom and a kitchen. I love that my house is a place where the guys like to come.  I think I have stocked in that kitchen a huge bucket of cheese balls, granola bars, popcorn, oatmeal, peanut butter and over six types of ice cream treats …I think you get the drift.  My house is a revolving door of traffic, laughter and polite “kids”. At any given time, there could be up to six or seven cars in the driveway.   Suffice it to say, it’s busy here.

So, what am I going to do in another 157 days when Jack goes to the University of Alabama? Will I be dancing in the kitchen to Pitbull or sitting in the quiet, just listening to that silence?  When Amelia left for college it was bad. I cried every time I walked past her room and texted her every morning and night.  This is going to take some getting used to and Alabama is much further than Rochester!

It’s funny when you have kids.  You wait for and look forward to that next big step.  From the time they say “mama” to the time they drive down that driveway alone for the first time, it seems like forever and yet a millisecond all at the same time.  Time passes so quickly from that first drive to the graduation stage.  Now Chip & I are on the precipice of an empty nest.  It’s both good and bad.

So, my darling Jack, keep yelling “MOM!” for the next 157 days.  Keep pretending you’re asleep when I come in to get Izzy from beneath your arm.  Keep smiling when I ask for a kiss goodbye or goodnight. Keep remembering that I love mint tea from Starbucks; and keep bringing me a cup as a bribe when you get home late. Keep thinking of me when you see penguins. Just. Keep. Being. You, Jack.

But, if you could just clean your room, and your Jeep, my life would be complete!

Thank you iStock images.  Jack and I love penguins.