There were tears at bedtime tonight and they weren’t streaming down my toddler’s face, they were streaming down mine. Something no one told me about becoming a mother was that it rips your heart wide open, in a good way. From the moment I held her in my arms, I knew that I had to soak in every moment, the good and the bad. Luckily for me, Mckenna has made motherhood easy. She was an incredibly happy baby and is a happy…maybe a bit sassy…but overall a happy toddler. I know not everyone has the same experience with motherhood, we are on our own journeys.
When people offered the advice of soaking it all in when we had kids and that they grow up so fast, I took that to heart. I was given similar advice about one of the most important and beautiful days of my life, our wedding day. I did everything I could to slow down time on that day. Chauncey and I literally took a step away from the tent that the party was raging on in and we looked back to see all of our friends and family enjoying our special day, right there on the farm I grew up on. We took that moment for ourselves and I have that memory locked in forever.
Motherhood to me is so incredibly precious. I blinked and my daughter will be closing in on two in a few short months. Two years old! How did that even happen? Listen to your friends and family who have been there before you - when they say time speeds up when you have children, they aren’t lying. When they tell you to soak in the moments with your babies, heed their advice.
So why the tears at bedtime? I was rocking her in my arms, singing her the song I sing her every night and she looked up at me, we locked eyes and all of a sudden I had this flash forward in my mind. Before I know it she will be a rebellious teenager, yelling at me and saying that I’m ruining her life. Cue the dramatics if she’s anything like I was! But here in this moment she was looking up at me, she’s small enough for me to hold and rock her still, she’s still craving my cuddles, she’s still my baby girl and even though she will grow up and one day move out to live her own life…she will always be my baby girl.
Photography: Sandra Hill Photography
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