Open-Mouthed Kisses

I'm a very sentimental person, which has been difficult to deal with since Liam was born. It's hard to be the type of person who needs reminders of the past, when your son seems to grow years, daily and right before your eyes. Although all of the normal, major milestones that he reaches make me sad that the stage has passed, I also think that I do a pretty good job of keeping it together. I can honestly say that, until last night, I have made it through the first 21 months without weeping about his growth.
I say, until last night, because one of the most amazing, adorable baby-isms that Liam has participated in, is now over. I can take the rolling over, the crawling, the walking and talking, the first hair cut, and his first birthday without so much as getting teary-eyed, but when my beautiful boy stopped giving me an open-mouthed baby kiss, that's when the flood gates opened! I LOVE his open mouth, slobbery kisses. Now that they are gone, he seems to be much older some how.
When he gave me a kiss right before going to bed last night, it was a normal peck of a kiss. When I said something about this, my husband said, "Oh ya. He gave me a kiss like that last night too. He must be over the open-mouthed kisses." Instantly, I felt my eyes begin to water, then the sobbing began. Both Liam and Joe looked at me in disbelief. Joe was confused and Liam concerned. Liam crawled into my lap, touched the corner of my eye where the tears were coming out, and then gave me a big hug. This almost made it worse! It was so sweet of him to be concerned and caring, but that's my job and he is too young to know what to do. Or at least I wish he was.