{"id":3867,"date":"2016-09-02T00:01:46","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T06:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mops.org\/?p=3867"},"modified":"2016-09-02T00:01:46","modified_gmt":"2016-09-02T06:01:46","slug":"celebration-worthy-rites-of-passage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/celebration-worthy-rites-of-passage\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Celebration-Worthy Rites of Passage"},"content":{"rendered":"

My oldest son just turned 10! I can\u2019t believe it. It\u2019s so bittersweet \u2013 he\u2019s big and fun, he\u2019s not my baby anymore. All those older moms warned me the years would fly and I confess, I didn\u2019t listen or really even believe them until now. Here\u2019s a list of 15 celebration-worthy rites of passage along the journey of motherhood.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The first time they eat solids is a big moment, but I think the first day they feed themselves<\/em> is amazing. They have food all over their big grinning faces, and they\u2019re just so darn proud of their accomplishment.<\/li>\n
  2. When they learn to \u201cwrite\u201d their names. They aren\u2019t concerned with the correct order of the letters or even keeping them in a straight line, but their names are on paper. Yay!<\/li>\n
  3. When they go to bathroom alone (and as a blessed result, so do you!).<\/li>\n
  4. When they put on their own seatbelts. Mom, one day there shall be no more climbing over seats and sweating profusely while trying to buckle each of them in. They will get in and out of the car themselves. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!<\/li>\n
  5. The first time they show unique taste in music. My kids started out listening to what we showed them \u2013 Johnny Cash, Mumford & Sons, Ella Fitzgerald, The Beatles, etc. Now, all roads inevitably lead to Froggy Fresh or Minecraft songs. This is a little annoying as they start demanding control of the music more often. But it\u2019s been fun to see what they gravitate toward. My oldest has introduced me to some great new songs.<\/li>\n
  6. When they put their own laundry\/dishes\/ride-on toys away. Seriously, their hands do actual work!<\/li>\n
  7. This connects to number one, but it deserves its own line item because it\u2019s so major: when they begin to wipe their own booties (and wash their hands without being reminded). This is worth buying a pi\u00f1ata and inviting the entire neighborhood over to celebrate.<\/li>\n
  8. When they\u2019re old enough to bathe themselves. I consider it a miracle that I can just say, \u201cGo take a shower,\u201d to my oldest, and he actually does it. Bath time with the little ones is precious and not to be missed. But as they get older, it sure is nice to catch up on that unread People magazine for ten uninterrupted minutes.<\/li>\n
  9. The first time they stop making you put them to bed 800 different times. One day there will be no more, Now, I need another story. Now, a snack. Now, water. Now, a song. Now, a joke. Now, a prayer. Now, more water \u2018cause my water\u2019s gone. Now, that random toy I haven\u2019t played with in years but desperately need in bed with me this very minute or I won\u2019t be able to sleep.<\/em> It\u2019s a little sad to see them growing up but it\u2019s also pretty freaking fantastic when you\u2019re worn out in the evenings. One magical day your kids will stick to the established bedtime routine \u2013 and actually just fall asleep.<\/li>\n
  10. The first time they want to grow their hair out like a character on Star Wars<\/em> or style their entire look without any help from mom. This will make for wonderfully embarrassing stories at their future weddings.<\/li>\n
  11. When they learn to read. Experiencing them sounding out letters and putting it all together is so remarkable, and then it gets even better. There will come a day when you\u2019re reading the same book as your child. My oldest son and I just read the new Harry Potter <\/em>play at the same time and we had lots of fun spoiling it for my husband.<\/li>\n
  12. The birds and bees talk. \u201cWait. What goes WHERE?\u201d<\/li>\n
  13. The first time you share your favorite things with them, and they \u201cget it.\u201d I recently took my sons to see the Disney musical Newsies,<\/em> which was my favorite movie as a tween. It was so fun to watch the show through their eyes \u2013 definitely brought me to tears.<\/li>\n
  14. The first vacation without naps or diapers. I have no words for how glorious this is. It\u2019s like Marty McFly came back from the future and told you how to win a billion dollars \u2013 it\u2019s a beacon of bright hope for the days ahead.<\/li>\n
  15. The first time they say\/write\/draw something along the lines of, \u201cI love you so much, mom. You\u2019re the best mommy in the whole world.\u201d This is the good stuff of life.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I am sure you\u2019ve heard the old adage, \u201cThe days are long, but the years are short.\u201d In my experience, this has proved to be so true. The great news is that there are so many unique and delightful rites of passages along the way. If you keep an eye open for them, there will always be something new to celebrate.<\/p>\n

    \n

    \"Aubrey<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Aubrey Sampson the mom of three crazy-hilarious sons, which is also to say that she spends most days in her pajamas drinking entirely too much coffee. On the days she manages to get dressed, Aubrey is an event and retreat speaker, a blogger, and the author of Overcomer: Breaking Down the Walls of Shame and Rebuilding Your Soul (Zondervan, 2015)<\/em>. She and her husband, Kevin, just planted their first church in the Chicagoland area.\u00a0You can find and follow Aubrey at aubreysampson.com<\/a> and @aubsamp.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    My oldest son just turned 10! I can\u2019t believe it. It\u2019s so bittersweet \u2013 he\u2019s big and fun, he\u2019s not my baby anymore. All those older moms warned me the years would fly and I confess, I didn\u2019t listen or really even believe them until now. Here\u2019s a list of 15 celebration-worthy rites of passage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":3868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,102],"tags":[322,226,56,514],"class_list":["post-3867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fun","category-relationships","tag-celebration","tag-humor","tag-motherhood","tag-rites-of-passage"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}