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These Days

Monday, April 27, 2009

"The days are long, but the years are short." Someone told me this after Lucy was born I think. Or maybe I read it in a book. I can't remember, but I know it's true. As I was looking over pictures from Joshua's first year, memories of those days flooded my mind. New motherhood, one baby, apartment living... It's already the past, filed away in my memory. Then I looked around me. These days will very soon be those days. What will my memories be filled with?

Watching Joshua explore his three year old world brings so much love to my heart it hurts. The afternoon is bright enough but he turns the light on. I would tell him to turn it off, until I see him look at the light through first his orange balloon and then Lucy's pink one. During the sermon he was "shaving" with the magna-doodle pen. "I'm the boy and the girls are babies," he informed me one day. Every day he does or says something to bring a smile to my lips.

Lucy is our touchy baby. When things are going how she thinks they should, all is well. But if she is bumped, or someone speaks to her suddenly, or it's time for a diaper change, she lets the world know that she was thrown off her groove! At one and a half, she is talking independently in one and two syllable words. She heard an airplane go overhead this morning and said, "Airplane!" She will also point out sirens and trains when she hears them. Recently, she started saying some three sylable words: polka dot, kitty cat, and applesauce. Three things make her happy in life: a consistent routine that ends with her own bed at night, a quiet life away from crowds, and Mommy.

Not a day goes by these days when I fail to notice our youngest family member. She squirms and moves more often, I think, than Joshua and Lucy together. Sometimes I swear it feels like she's dancing a jig. Other times it could be a slow waltz that she dances on the walls of her small world. Eli and I went to a concert last week and as soon as the music started, she began moving. I had fun listening to the beautiful music with her. I wonder what her personality will be like as I feel feet, elbows, or head dancing across my belly. Will she be dreamy like Joshua? Or sensitive like Lucy? I think she will be more spirited than both of them.

People say that time only goes faster the older you get. I believe them. In the blink of an eye I will be telling Joshua's future bride not to expect him to take out the garbage because he just won't think of it. I will be assuring Lucy that it is not the end of the world that her husband squeezes toothpaste out of the middle of the tube. I will be watching this new daughter's first dance at her wedding. In those days, I will remember with fondess the days of rumaging under the stove for little wheels off things. Diapers on the line will be a quaint picture rather than a daily reality. These days are beautiful in their own way. Knowing that they won't last forever, I try not to blink.

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