Dear time,Just stop. Please. Stop it with your ticking and your passing me by. Stop it with your changing and evolving. Just stop. If only for a moment.
As people pass me in the street, they exclaim upon seeing Luella, “Isn’t she tiny? I don’t remember them being that small!” or “Oh, the time goes by so quickly… savour every moment.”
I don’t remember Luella being that small and she WAS only that small yesterday. Where does the time go?
I was all too aware that the these early days pass by so quickly because, you know, I had a child before and she grew big quickly, so I promised myself to be present and really enjoy Luella. It’s easier said than done when a lot of those early days are spent with a cranky baby and all you want to do is wish the long days away.
But I’ve soaked her up. I’ve been present. I just spend hour after hour gazing at her, telling her how much I love her. Sometimes it overwhelmed me, the moments pass by so quickly… how could I possibly savour it more? Photos? Videos? Or just implanting the beautiful memories in my mind forever?
Last week Lacey came to me with a wobbly tooth. “No, no, no, no…” I thought… out loud. It couldn’t be so. For some the big milestone might be learning to ride a bike, their first sleepover or their first day at school. For me, it’s the losing of the teeth. It’s the rite of passage where they step into big-kid-dom and they don’t come back. First it’s that gappy smile and then the big teeth come, and they’re officially big. BIG. They might as well be getting their licence and heading out to a party. Oh no, let’s not think that far ahead.
Before long the beautiful, colourful clothes that fill her wardrobe will be pushed aside for her not-so-exciting school uniforms that will get bigger and dirtier as the months go by. Time will whiz by.
Clearly I’m in that fragile new-mama place where emotions and hormones are heightened and all the little things are big things {in more ways than one, they’re growing these little people! Have I mentioned that yet?}.
So time, give it a break will you? Just stop for a moment. I know there is good stuff ahead, but let me just enjoy these sweet moments for a little longer. Please.
Chantelle. x
Remember that TV show “Out of This World” where the girl used to touch her fingertips together and everything around her paused? If only that was a real thing…I would use it to stop and take in more of the fleeting moments that turn out to be major moments in retrospect…oh and to get more sleep! 🙂
My niece is starting high school next year and I asked her mum (my sister-in-law) if she would be having a graduation and she replied with the date and “it will be so nice to have you there since you were there on her first day of Kindy”. That first day of Kindy feels like only yesterday!!!!! No!!!! She’s my little niece she can’t go to high school! I can’t imagine having this feeling with my own children..
How do we savour our precious moments any more than we already do? I tkae photos, I write journals, letters, cards to the kids, I blog, capture, capture, capture. Then somedays i just sit, sit and watch and feel, feel as deep as it is possible.
I’m in a fragile old mama state Telle … wish I could tell you that the fragile state disappears. It’s two weeks till my second child and only daughter graduates from school. I tear up just writing those words. Then in a month we are saying goodbye to a school I’ve been associated with for 14 years when my youngest has his last day before we start our new life in Brisbane next year. I’m a mess already. xx
Many of us are nodding our heads to this. I’ve been trying to fall pregnant for 5 years and time is getting away from hubby and I. If we ever have a child, I’ll be older than I wanted to be. I wish time could slow down, or that damn stork could find my house xx
This made me a little emotional. I feel for you because I know the feeling very well! My youngest (and possibly my last) is off to school next year, also! It’s exciting and sad. And I always love looking back on home videos. Take plenty of them! x
Oh I read this and thought yes I am with you on this one. My two are turning into adults on Saturday, my twin babies are going to be 18 and I am really not sure where the “time” has gone. I have two beautiful children but they are growing into their own people and lets just hope I have done enough to make them into responsible loving adults. Enjoy all the time with your children, store those memories, take those photos and love them to bits. xxx
Oh how I read this and so agree! I wish we could stop time and savour the moment. My eldest will be 22 next month. There is a picture of him as a baby on my living room wall, and I stared at it for a long while, trying to remember him growing up into the young man he has become. My youngest is in his last year of high school. Exams next year then choices of what he wants to do for the rest of his life, where has that time gone? One minute we are holding them in our arms, the next they are making their own way in the world and the years just seem to fly past!
Yes, please time, stop a minute or 2
The only way to slow down time is to ENJOY EVERY SECOND of it! Take a deep breath, don’t sweat the small stuff, and bask in the now!
I have 3 kids, the first two are 29 and 27. It was TOTAL chaos when they were young, and all I could do was wish for tomorrow. All of a sudden they were grown! My youngest is 22 and I REALLY tried to immerse myself in every smile, every hug, and every tear. It still went way too fast, but I felt like I was living life instead of wishing it away!
My 18 year old just walked in the door having finished his last HSC exam. Truly feels like yesterday he was starting Kindergarten. He said “is this when my life really begins?”….
I agree the time flys past my children are 23 and 25 adults with lives of their own but wasn’t it only yesterday I bought them home from hospital “sigh” and with the passing of the years I often glance in the mirror and think no that’s Not ME I am younger than that ,I am going to turn 50 this month and I really don’t want to!
Enjoy Luella and Lacey while they are little once they go to school they get too big too fast xx