Finally Getting It

I finally get it.

I get why older moms looked at my falling out pony tail, spit up stained clothes, smeared make up and could only see the newborn in my arms. They'd always be sure tell me to enjoy every second of her & each and every time I more than willingly offered to switch spots with them. Tonight after the older kids all got put to bed it was just me and my Addy.

I knew her tooth had poked through a few weeks ago, but it has taken awhile to really come down. This toothy smile brought home this lesson.

I finally get it.

I get that each day I get to spend looking at this sweet baby's face is a blessing, even if it is not smiling and is whining and crying or sick. Days and nights just flowed together in the beginning and it was hard to appreciate my sweet newborn while caring for my not-always-so-sweet older kids. So many days of Ella's, Brennan's & Connor's first year I spent wishing them away. Wondering when they would roll over, when they would crawl, take their first step, say their first word, give me a first kiss.

This has to be why the baby of the family gets 'babied' so much. This is the last of the 1st teeth, the last of the first crawling, the last of the first steps for my children. I finally get that as boring, mundane, frustrating, exhausting, selfless as mothering can be; it's an honor to share in these little lives, in each and every day/night of their life.  I finally get it. Just like my husband & I spent our college years wishing them away in hopes for an exciting chance at real adult life; I've been wishing away a lot of the early years of motherhood. I've let the short term sleepless nights, tantrums, time outs, sassiness drown out the long term perspective that they are only little for so many years. The first 9 months of this little one's first year have flown by unlike any of the older kids. All because of 1 little toothy grin ... I get it.

Thanks my sweet Addy for helping me appreciate the here and now a little more than I have in the past and giving me one last opportunity to cherish these first moments of yours.