Lent and Lost Teeth

So this is embarrassing:  I was going to post my Lenten reflections - including what I was going to GO WITHOUT - but 18 jelly beans in, I have ALREADY broken my intentions.  AARGH.  Here's my excuse:  isn't  pregnancy just one very very long Lent anyway?  I've already given up all the good stuff.  But still:  can you imagine me for forty days in the desert?  What an unmitigated disaster - I can't even go three hours without a Kahlua truffle.  Sheesh.

But I CAN try to do something - things - that are positive:  go to confession, bring the kids to a Lenten meal at church, go to Stations of the Cross, and make sure that I am more or less trying each day to be a good wife, patient mother and uncomplaining Tulsan. 

Gulp.

***

With this many kids, there are always so many "firsts."  And each time, each first is still such a big deal- no matter how many elder siblings have gone through the same thing.  Even our jaded older boys gave grudging kudos to our dear Will:

My "baby" boy.  Here's a sure way to get me all teary:  make me put some 4T boys' clothes in the "Too Small for Will" pile.

It isn't that it "goes by so fast."  It's that you can't hold onto those memories of fat baby thighs and all-consuming babyhood, any more than you can cup water in your hands without it seeping through your fingers so very quickly.