It Goes Fast...

 A friend shared this post from The Everyday Mama on Facebook yesterday, and it hit me right in the feels:

“Let them be little,

Let them be silly,

Let them giggle,

Let them explore,

Let them ask for you to read that story once more,

They’re only little for so long,

Then one day these precious tender moments are gone,

The memories carried with you like a delicate old song,

Let them play,

Let them sing,

This will all be gone in a blink,

One day these little moments will feel like a distant dream.”

 

See, yesterday, it was tough. So tough that my first Tweet for the day was along the lines of “I need a vacation, a break…drowning and no one cares.” It was a little longer than that, but I was at my wit’s end. Baby was up early, the house was a mess and I was on weekend number 3 in a row of my husband working. He works long shifts and just went back to nights, so sometimes, I see him for less than an hour combined on those weekends. The house was a mess. Every single time I cleaned something up, something else was out in its place and I was just…done.

I’m a big believer in things popping up when you need them most. Whether that’s a specific verse of scripture, a song lyric, a text from a friend…whatever. Today, it was that Facebook post.

I have the gift of two children with a wide age span. The oldest is 10 and the youngest is almost 2. I have the gift of knowing that these tough days, they don’t last forever. I remember a decade ago (okay, putting it THAT definitely makes me cringe), people would say “it goes by so fast.” But when you’re in the midst of it, the day in and day out, buried in laundry, or up to your ears in Hot Wheels or about to scream because the only word your child says  “Mom-Mom (and it doesn’t even mean Mom, it just is what he’s picked to mean anything and everything)” for the ten-billionth time in 5 minutes, it feels like it will never end.

But even though they’re tough, they are sweet and special. Even with the gift of hindsight and a fresh new toddler in my grasp, I forget how fast 10 years has flown by. Austin, while still very much needy from time to time (though, that could just be laziness), needs me for less and less every day. He can entertain himself with Fortnite and his friends, draw endlessly in his comic books, and looks to me much less often than he used to.

I don’t know how this time has flown by so quickly, but the same is happening with Aiden. And I sometimes need the reminder that while it’s so hard and some days I feel like I’m drowning and I’m no longer my own person, these little people depend on me, and while I’m so excited to see who these two grow up to be, it’s going to go by in the blink of an eye. So even when it’s hard, I can complain and sulk for a minute, but remind myself as Aiden hands me an 8th book before bedtime that his brother, in the other room, no longer brings me bedtime books to read to him. 

So all of this just to say, they’re right, you know. It flies by. “Long days, fast years” and all that jazz. You won’t think that when you’re in the thick of it, but maybe you’ll come across some perfectly timed post, or some song, or a photo of an older sibling from years back that just reminds you that while you’re their Mama forever and always, they won’t always be small enough to hold, or want that extra bedtime story. Though I do hope in your case, your toddler doesn’t know how to hit you where it hurts and bring you one of the books that makes you cry every. single. time. you read it like mine did last night.

I read it anyway.

And yes, I cried last night, too. 

***Also, if you're in the mood to cry with me about things like this, check on "It Goes Fast" by Stephen Kellogg***