"But Mommy the cap didn't fit"; out of the mouth of babes

How many times have you been so moved by a child's statement that you remember that biblical phrase "out of the mouth of babes.." Well it occured to me recently. My little preschooler and I had gone out to do some window shopping and maybe shopping for real. It was one of those days when she would not listen, neither was she interested in anything I wanted to entice her with. Her first port of call was to sit at the window ledge of the shop we were at. An associate had nicely asked her to climb down from it. She did so promptly, but went out to the door of the shop. I was getting frustrated and tried to engage her in some lovely hats which I felt she would love. Hi baby come and try these hats, she loved a little pink one, but it was for 6-12 months old kids so it did not fit. I told her as much, I said it does not fit because it is for little babies. And she seemed to understand and dropped it. We went round and I had to leave for another shop as I didn't see what I wanted. A day later I called her, "mommy's little baby" come here. She looked at me like, I was bunkers. Out of her mouth came the following words, "the cap didn't fit." I was confused, What do you mean baby, "mommy I am not a baby I am a big girl now, the cap didn't fit." A day later, her older brother called her "baby." She used the same words, "I am not a baby the cap didn't fit!" "I am a big girl now." I laughed both times but I realized she had accepted her new position without much ado. She was no longer a baby because the baby cap didn't fit. She had moved on and wanted every one to know that too. It was so simple for her to accept the change of her status just because of a single event. In her mind that was all it took not to be a baby. I cried in my heart for my baby who was now a big "preschool"girl. I had been unconsciously buying little sizes for her for a while, then I would return them and say to myself, "my child is growing so fast." I was holding on to her as a really little baby just as we hold on to our younger selves and former status. We refuse to move on in age or in status, sometimes we are being called to a different life but we are so scared to move that we persist in wearing that "cap" that does not fit. That little child made me think so long and hard I had to put it all down. Are you stuck in a position or a "cap" that doesn't fit? Is God, your life or circumstance urging you to move to another level? Or are you still looking at your children as "little" and refusing to see their changing forms and needs? Move on, the cap doesn't fit anymore, get a new one. Listen more to the children, like the child who truly saw that, "the emperor had no clothes" and voiced it out they are the most truthful voices we will hear around us. Go, get a move on, "the cap, didn't fit."