“You will never have this day with your children again. Tomorrow they will be a little bigger than they are today. This day is a gift. Breathe and notice. Smell and touch them; study their faces and little feet and pay attention. Relish the charms of the present. Enjoy today, mama. It will be over before you know it.”
My little Lachlan! Prompts like this are fun. Often discussions of Lach are focused on, or at least tinged with the sorrow of losing him. A light-hearted prompt about my sweet baby allows me to relish for a few moments in nothing but the joy of having him in my arms and in my life!
Lach was born June 21, 2008…at 3:40-something in the morning. (I have a lot of kids, it’s hard to keep the stats straight) As the summer solstice started with the birth of a baby in the middle of the night, it was the longest day of the year in more ways than one! He was born 21 months after his big brother, Westin. He was 2 lbs bigger than Westin was at birth and we were a bit amazed at how huge that 8lbs 5 oz seemed.
Westin was a good big brother to Lachlan, considering he was a not-quite-two-year-old himself. He was gentler and sweeter than I ever would have expected a busy toddler boy to be with a new baby. With my two boys, my heart was SO full! Some of my favorite memories are of the two of them together. Like the day I was cooking supper and listening to them giggle at each other while Lach (maybe 4 months at the time) sat in the bouncy seat just behind me…As I was enjoying their giggles, I turned my head to take a glance at the sweet moment unfolding, to find that Westin was pulling the top of the bouncer down and then letting it go, to sling-shot Lach’s head up off the seat. They were having a glorious time! I, on the other hand, learned a valuable lesson. Hehe! Just because they’re happy and laughing, doesn’t mean what they’re doing is ok! The two of them would play and giggle at each other as they faced each other riding in the car. They spent hours standing side by side peering through the living room window to watch the construction across the street. Lachlan thought it was fun to grab a fist-full of Westin’s hair to see what kind of reaction he might get—sometimes it was laughter, sometimes it was a loud screech—the unpredictability is probably what made it so entertaining!
We didn’t have a gate at the top of our stairs, and Lach quickly learned that he could get our attention all at once by making a move for the staircase. He would look at us, wait to make eye contact, and then make a crawling dash toward the stairs, to be pleasantly amused that we would drop everything and dive across the room to keep him from taking a tumble.
That baby loved the toilet! If the bathroom door was left open, he’d surely make his way in there to splash in the water. We were potty training Westin and we’d have to play elite level defense to keep Lach out of the toilet while Westin did his job.
Lach was such a sweet baby. He loved to watch what was going on around him. He was quick to smile. He gave big, drooly kisses. I loved the way he felt in my arms as he snuggled his face into the crook of my neck. He had this wisp of hair on the top of his head that had just enough of a curl that it was always sticking up no matter what I did to try to get it to lay down.
…I could go on and on. So many memories and so much love and joy in that short 10.5 months…I wish I could tell them all!
I’ll end today with this, another of my favorite quotes:
“You will never have this day with your children again. Tomorrow they will be a little bigger than they are today. This day is a gift. Breathe and notice. Smell and touch them; study their faces and little feet and pay attention. Relish the charms of the present. Enjoy today, mama. It will be over before you know it.” – Jen Hatmaker
Our kids will either grow up, or they won’t get that chance, but either way, the charms of the day will be over before you know it. To parents everywhere, soak them in. Take a moment today to know how fleeting and how precious this day really is.
