Where has the time gone?

I'm feeling very nostalgic in the days leading up to Savannah's third birthday. It's so hard to believe that three years ago I gave up my newspaper job and focused on getting ready for our little girl to arrive.
I thought I knew what being a Mama really meant, but I really had no idea and, the truth is, I'm still learning every day. I now know it's the hardest, most rewarding job you can have and I'm blessed to have two healthy, beautiful children that I'm playing a major role in molding into adults.
There are days when I wonder if I lose my patience and raise my voice too much or if I play with or experience new things enough. I wonder if I get them out around other kids as much as I should or give them enough healthy foods each day.
I'm sure these are things every parent deals with, but it stays on my mind constantly since I'm with them every day.
Pat and I started late in the baby-making game we decided to stop with two children and as they get older I wonder if I will regret not having more children. Having two babies in two years makes me realize that there are benefits to having children when you're younger, but I wouldn't change my life for anything because I don't think I would be the Mama I am if I hadn't lived my working life first.
There have been many debates between being a stay-at-home or working Mama and I think it's a personal decision each woman has to make for herself... some women don't even get the chance to make the decision as financial issues force them back to the workplace.
My own Mama worked hard all of her adult life and she spent many of our growing up years working multiple jobs to keep our family of six afloat. I can still remember her coming home so tired and all of us vying for what attention she had left to give.
I made the decision years ago that I wanted to stay home with my kids if my husband and I could afford it and we've been blessed to be able to do it. It has meant squeezing in freelance stories before Pat goes to work and not doing everything we would like to do, but we've made it work.
So as we celebrates Savannah's third birthday Saturday with a Family Day, I will also be marking the day one chapter of my life (that of being a newspaper reporter) closed and a new, and hopefully much longer, chapter of being a Mama began.