Saying Goodbye

I first have to sigh and take a big breathe as I want to get this right. I thought I was ready for this but clearly it is hitting me harder than I thought it would. Some of you will appreciate this more than others and I welcome you to leave a post if I drudge up any repressed feelings from your souls.
I have taken apart my babies crib for one final time. It happened yesterday while my husband was out, at my request, in -30 degree cold to purchase a mattress for a bed that we bought months earlier... knowing this day would come. I was very excited to get Tao into her new bed, to prepare the bedding and rearrange her pretty room. Then when I saw my little lovebug laying under her flannel sheet and cozy duvet in a bed 10 times her size... it saddened me. There is no going back.
Our family is now complete... and growing. And again I am reminded of how time just keeps ticking and no matter how much you live in the moment and try to reflect daily on your graces, time has its own agenda. We bought that crib new from Sears nearly 7 years ago for our first angel, Alex. He was 26 months when Manny was born and moved out of it into a big boy bed just in time. We didn't take it down during Manny's transition to the bottom bunk when he was 28 months either. So that crib has been a solid piece of our home for nearly as long as we have lived here. I am going to miss Tao calling for me to come and get her after a nap, standing in the corner of the crib all smiley and disheveled. Today she just walked out of her room and stood at the top of the stairs and smiled proudly saying in her cute Tao voice " Big Seep Mom!".
That crib was an expensive and hugely important purchase for us as new parents and now it is history. So my kids are growing up, and I am sad about that.