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Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Tuesday, July 21, 2009 5:00 PM
Have you heard it said about parenting that “the days are long but the years are short”?
The first time I heard that saying, I nodded emphatically. Staying home with little ones often does make the days seem long. The years, on the other hand, are short.
Or in this case, the half-years are short. Blaise was six months old on Sunday, and I’m bewildered by how quickly my tiny, barely-sentient eight-pound newborn has turned into a bouncing, giggling twenty-two pounds of half-year-old baby.
There’s no way to rework this sentiment to make it new. But that doesn’t make this particular truth into a truism. It is universally expressed because it is universally experienced: our time on earth is fleeting. Especially our time with our little ones.
Near the end of Anne of Ingleside, Anne moves through the house one night after bedtime, checking on the sleeping forms of her six children.
They were all growing so fast. In just a few short years they would be all young men and women . . . youth tiptoe . . . expectant . . . a-star with its sweet wild dreams . . . little ships sailing out of safe harbour to unknown ports. But they would still be hers for a few years yet . . . hers to love and guide . . . to sing songs that so many mothers had sung.
Since having my own children I think often of this passage. After a hard night, I sometimes survive minute-by-minute the next day, and can hardly imagine making it through an entire week. But then I blink and six months have gone by!
I try to make this a lesson, because I know that the experience extrapolates. Six months are quick, and so are three years, and I imagine that eighteen years is going to feel like nothing retrospectively.
Since I have learned how quickly a baby becomes a toddler, I think I am remembering to cherish it better this time. My little guy’s first months were tough, but these days I mostly remember to cradle him as he nurses, to kiss his soft head and treasure the chance to rub my cheek against it. Before I know it, he’s not going to want to cuddle with me all the time.
Six months with Blaise is a blessing beyond measure.
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My first born of 3 is 15 and in 2 weeks from yesterday will offically be able to start driving with one of us with him. Yes time really does fly!!! We were watching old videos of him last week and I could not get over how much he has changed. I almost don’t even remember that he used to be that small. It is wonderful to watch them grow, but it is also somewhat sad. It goes by too fast!
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