Put Her in a Pickle Jar

The day before yesterday I found a tiny sliver of a tooth in Sable's bottom gum. Darn it.
I knew it was coming, I mean she's been so slobbery that she could easily have filled a small wading pool by now. And she's been smacking her gums like an 85 year old whose dentures have come loose for weeks.
But still. . . I was wishing and hoping that just one of my children would obey and NOT grow up so fast.
To make it worse, last night Sable slept in her crib in Capri's (now Sable and Capri's) room. Till last night she's slept right beside me in a bassinet. I really didn't mean for her to stay in the bassinet for so long, 7 months to be exact. Rome and Capri never did, but I didn't want to put a tiny baby in with an older kid and have them wake each other up. Plus, I knew it would be much easier for me to have her close.
So yesterday, even though I didn't want to, I finally cleared all the clutter that had accumulated in Sable's crib so she could sleep in it (which by the way has been set up since before she was born). Jeff has been nagging me to do this for months now. Well not really nagging, that's not Jeff's style. He more would just softly mention it, over and over. Kind of like the tiny, persistant ladybugs we so often find in the house. It doesn't really bother you, you don't want to smash it, but it keeps on showing up in your living room. Until one day, you finally go and get a dixie cup and put it outside.
Usually at night, after we put Rome and Capri to bed. I go back to the couch and feed Sable. She falls asleep and I put her in her boppy, where she stays until I finally decide to go to bed myself and put her in her bassinet. But last night after I fed Sable, smelled her, and kissed her, I laid her in her own big crib and went back to sit on the couch and watch tv alone.
Even writing this now I feel the same knot in the back of my throat and the tiny tears at the corners of my eyes I felt last night. I missed her. I missed her next to me on the couch, and I missed her next to me in her bassinet. She was really only 25 feet away, but I felt like she was in a whole other world. And in a way, she was.
And, of course, she was happy in that world. Comfy, with lots more space she slept through the night and stayed asleep even after Capri got up in the morning. I on the other hand, found it VERY hard to fall asleep and laid awake for quite a while thinking, thinking, thinking.
With every baby, I know those kinds of moments are coming and I DREAD them. I always tell Jeff how much I will miss each one once they are big. And I do. I miss them each so much it hurts right down to my toes.
Last night, as I have times before when these moments hit, I thought about my own dad and what he used to say when my brothers and I were growing up. He'd say, "I wish I could put you in a pickle jar, and STOP you from getting bigger." Dad, I wish that too. So much. So much.