I can't tell you how often I pass some older person at the grocery store, in the bank, who coos at my children. Then they reminisce to their past days of parenting their 3 boys or two little girls "just like your two" and how it was just yesterday...now their children are grown and gone or, worse yet (their facial expression scrunches up as they announce) their children are teenagers.
And even if it's the worst possible day I've ever had, my new shirt smeared in crusted crackers and spit up, my oldest wailing up at me while wrapped around my ankles, for that one moment I recognize it. For one second, I can step back and admire my children with a perfect stranger's eye, I can fast forward to a day when I'll be sitting at home with no diapers to change, no turkey sandwiches to make (WITH cream cheese, NO crust, extra shredded carrots) and I know that this stranger is a gift from above. A timely reminder of my special post in life at a very important and very short period in my children's and my own life. In the blink of an eye, they will both be in school, and I will have hours to myself, and when they arrive home to do their homework and chat on the phone, they will not need me, they will not ask for more milk or an airplane ride through the living room. They won't climb on me while I'm reading, they won't barge in while I'm in the shower, they'll close their bedroom doors and lament about how little privacy they get in this house. So today I'm going to keep my eyes wide open, I'm giving this mommy job my best effort because I know that if I blink, these moments will be gone and my baby girls will be all grown up.
And even if it's the worst possible day I've ever had, my new shirt smeared in crusted crackers and spit up, my oldest wailing up at me while wrapped around my ankles, for that one moment I recognize it. For one second, I can step back and admire my children with a perfect stranger's eye, I can fast forward to a day when I'll be sitting at home with no diapers to change, no turkey sandwiches to make (WITH cream cheese, NO crust, extra shredded carrots) and I know that this stranger is a gift from above. A timely reminder of my special post in life at a very important and very short period in my children's and my own life. In the blink of an eye, they will both be in school, and I will have hours to myself, and when they arrive home to do their homework and chat on the phone, they will not need me, they will not ask for more milk or an airplane ride through the living room. They won't climb on me while I'm reading, they won't barge in while I'm in the shower, they'll close their bedroom doors and lament about how little privacy they get in this house. So today I'm going to keep my eyes wide open, I'm giving this mommy job my best effort because I know that if I blink, these moments will be gone and my baby girls will be all grown up.
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