It just hit me that my only child will be graduating from high school in less than two weeks.  

There will be no more parent/teacher conferences, no more boring PTA meetings, no more hours of Black History speeches and Easter plays, no more homework patrol, no more late night nursing a sick child back to health, no morning curfew control shifts, no more restriction, etc.

However, I realize that I am going to miss every single moment of raising a child!  My baby is actually grown up!

This Mother’s Day I was sitting in the park thinking about my most memorable moments as a mother.  Here are a few a my favorite memories below:

Most Embarrassing: "The Trauma of Flies"
My son and I traveled to Africa when he was 5 years old.  After visiting the country for two weeks our delegation prepared for our return home.  As a going away gift, our host family organized a a huge crab boil cook-out in the village.  However, my son and I noticed that there was an abundance of flies everywhere around the crab pots.  The flies landed on the pot, on peoples faces, on the plates, EVERYWHERE! My son (who hates bugs) sat quietly while our freshly boiled crabs were being served and handed on a plate to us.  After about 10 minutes of observation my son couldn’t take it anymore.  He cried out and startled the crowd which caused everyone to stop dead in their tracks.  He then shouted out at the top of his lungs. “Mommy, mommy what is wrong with THESE people??? THE FLIES,THE FLIES are EVERYWHERE? Can’t they see them?  I just can’t take it anymore.  I don’t want any party.  I want to go home where we don’t EAT flies...RIGHT NOW!”

Most Outdone! "The Stolen Breast"
I breastfed my baby until he was 15 months.  At 15 months I began to ween him so I only breastfed him once a day right before bed. I had completely stopped breastfeeding him throughout the night although he still slept in the bed with me. I soon noticed that I would wake up in the morning and always find my right breast outside of my gown.   I was very surprised about his eating patterns in the morning. I realized that he wasn’t hungry as usual in the mornings. Well one night I woke up and caught the little rascal and realized that he was stealing a midnight nursing feeding at night while I was dead asleep.

Most Fearful! "The Weekend Excursion"
Like most teens, my son went through a rebellious stage around 14.  On this particular Thanksgiving I put my son on a greyhound bus to visit his Dad in Alabama.  Hours later I discovered that he never arrived.  The next 48 hours were the worst hours of my life.  I felt like I was in hell.   I was convinced that someone had stolen my precious teenage son and hurt him because he had never been out-of-place up until that point.  After viewing hours and hours of video at the Greyhound bus station, reporting an Amber Alert, and activating a personal search team for my son...my son casually calls me 98 hours later and says, “Mom I was wondering can I come by the house to get some more clothes?  

Well, he came back home but he was on lock down for a long time.   Months later when I could finally talk about the ordeal  without wanting to choke him I asked him “Son, why did you worry your family by running away?” He looked shocked and calmly replied , ” What are you talking about?  I never ran away. Y‘all just over reacted. I was only on a weekend excursion with my friends.”  

As you can see, I have had plenty of adventures with my son.  I am looking forward to many more great years together!