My son is a senior!

It's official. I'm now the mom of a high school senior. I can really relate to all you mom's out there who are experiencing this for the first time. Does it get easier with the next? I have a feeling it's going to be harder since the next child is 7 years younger and my oldest daughter!

It hit me when the report card came. It's real, that and the graduation parties I'm attending for friends of graduating seniors. Where did the time go? What a year I will have a head of me. It's also becoming more and more real as I start senior pictures for other families. Oh, can I ever relate this year. I'm finding a lot of mom's really don't know what to do or expect going into this final year of high school. When I get a phone call now about senior portraits and a frazzled parent, I can honestly say, "I know what you're going through!" Fortunately, when it comes to the area of Senior portraits, I can be the calm voice of reassurance. While you're begging and pleading with your senior on the importance of senior portraits as a documetation of a milestone in their life, I am here to make at least that process simple and painless. And for the parents of boys, I can really relate! My son was given the choice, have mom do them or we will find a photographer mom is ok with and have them done elsewhere. My son chose me. He's not looking forward to them. He's not going to run out and pass them out to all his friends and he won't make a senior rep for the studio, but I know they will be good. A reflection of who he is.

So, as I move into my son's senior, last year of high school, remember, I can relate. We can celebrate together as our child moves onto the next phase of their life. I'll listen and share memories of their childhood as they move into adulthood. We can cry together as we think about all the time we feel we lost and how quickly the time went. But dream of the a wonderful life they will have and the joy they brought us as our babies and watching them grow up.

I think I'll go have a good cry now.