Just a few more then 10 | Mama Blog Annapolis Photographer - Sarah Michele Photography | Annapolis, Baltimore, Newborn, Child, and Family Photographer.

Just a few more then 10 | Mama Blog Annapolis Photographer

Mama Blog Annapolis photographer

Just a few more then 10? Thats it. It’s simple math, but its not so simple emotionally. The reality is our oldest may only live here for a few more then 10 years. As I type this a tiny girl with only 1 sock on and hair that appears free spirited as the humidity has taken hold of her curls stands in my office with a bucket of legos. Her tiny little fingers, though much bigger then they once were dig to the bottom of the box for the right piece. I hear her reciting a song to herself that she recently sang in her school’s Spring Performance. She will turn seven this year… seven! She may still need help brushing out her shirley temple curls, and sleep with a nightlight, shes getting older. Each day I feel the remnants of her being a little girl slip right through my fingers. She has groups of friends now, and wants to spend time in her room filling out the pages of her diary. Everyday she looks a little bit older to me, and her face looses the resemblance of a baby.

Sometimes I wonder if she is actually turning 15, since a bit of an attitude followers her around, sometimes her words come out with a sass that I dont know where it comes from. Other days she still prefers to curl up in my lap and read a book or for me to tell her a story, or paint on her face (I use a make-up brush to run imaginary lines around her face and create all sorts of animals). Sometimes I drop her off at school just to want to pick her back up again and have mommy and me time. Other days I catch myself saying “In a minute” or “Mommy will be done soon” too many times in a day, or wishing bedtime would arrive sooner then it does.

But, then it hit me…. She may only live here for a few more then 10 years….. thats really not that long at all. Of course it was in that moment that the tears began to flow and I wished for time to stop. It’s bittersweet you know…. watching them grow and re-living the world through their eyes and seeing the things they accomplish, all while wanting them to “stay little” forever. Being a parent is tough! We are caught in the balance of wanting them to grow up, and live life, and enjoy experiences and have adventures, while also wanting to shelter them from it all, and find a way to turn back the hands of time.

I look at my 1 year old daughter and think to myself that I get to do it all again, only to be reminded that this “first year” went by WAY faster then my first daughters “first year” and then more tears begin to fill up the well in my eye, and that lump… the one I hate that appears in my through when I’m having a hard time working through the emotions of the moment.. its back. Where is neverland and why cant children stay small.

I realize with the clock ticking as fast as it does and my children growing, they are shedding off the needs they once required of me when they were younger. I dont know how I feel about that, actually I do know and I don’t really like it. As moms we are so busy making meals, and tucking in babies, and rocking, and feeding, and reading, and bathing, and cleaning….. but if all of those things, the day in and day out tasks we do for our children were gone…. would we be happier, with the much more relaxing life? I think we all answered that questions quickly as a no. We would long for the days of babies splashing water until it floods the bathroom floor, and refolding the basket of clothes for the 4th time because a set of tiny hands “helped” you and unfolded them. When we look around at our clean house we will wish there were toys all over the place, and sticky hand prints on the sliding glass door. Why? Because that would mean that little people still lived here. What I am saying is that …. as cliche as it may sound… We, you and I … moms and dads… were gonna miss this. Like the country singer Trace Adkins says… We are going to want this back. We will surely wish it hadn’t gone by so fast… and with only a few more then 10.. that sounds fast to me right?

I guess what I am saying, and even telling my self here…… is to slow down. Really look them in the eye when they are talking to you. Stop what you are doing and sit on the floor and play legos, or build a fort, or dig in the dirt…. make the memories with the years you have left. Go on vacations, and eat the ice cream, and wear the silly shirt that your daughter loves. Maybe instead of wishing for the days when things “get easier” lets embrace these as the best days of our lives. The days when little heads fall asleep on our shoulders, and we tuck in tiny bodies at night. The days where muddy foot prints are tracked through the kitchen, and a popcicle has melted on the back porch. When the kids are put to bed for the night and you turn around to see a house that appears like a disaster, take a second and look at the memories that were made there, and then soak it in.. soak in that feeling of tired mommy after a day full of memory making. Because in a few more then 10 that feeling may leave you, along with the tiny ones you just tucked into their beds…. the ones who Right. About. Now….. need just one more cup of water mommy….. go snuggle them, you may only have a few more then 10.

Mama blog Annapolis Photographer