Please Stop Growing
Why won't you stop growing? I asked you nicely the other day when you were softly snoring next to me. But when you woke up, I swear you had grown even more. Other moms, moms who had "been there" before, told me to cherish it. To cherish every baby yawn, every milk drunken smile. They told me to cherish those first wobbly steps. They told me to kiss those chubby cheeks hard. I tried to. I really did. I tried my absolute hardest to cherish each moment. But it went by too fast anyway.
Those chunky baby thighs are now long, lanky legs that never stop moving. Those wobbly first steps are now full sprints, jumps, twirls and skips. That jet black hair you were born with, is now a cascade of golden blonde locks that fall just short of your tiny waist. Why won't you stop growing? I am not done. I am not ready to stop cradling you in my arms. I am not ready for the last of those squishy cheeks to slim down into a "big kid" face.
I used to ask you, "Who is your best friend?", and instantly you would reply, "MOMMY!". Now your response is the name of whatever kid you played with at school that day. You are growing so fast. Every day your vocabulary blows me away. Your imagination is exploding, and your bodily strength and coordination amaze me. I love it. I am trying to cherish it. Because just like you're no longer a baby, soon I know, you will be no longer a child. I am not ready for that. I know we have some time, after all, you are just shy of four years old. But just like I thought you would be a baby for so much longer, I know that this season will end before I am ready.
Now I will tell mothers after me, just as the ones before told me, cherish it. It really does fly by. Those never ending sleepless nights, they will be gone in a flash. Those first monumental steps, will too soon turn into steps walking away from you as they head into school. Those moments when you scoop up your baby and cradle them in your arms... well... soon they won't fit. So cherish it. Because they don't stop growing.
Those chunky baby thighs are now long, lanky legs that never stop moving. Those wobbly first steps are now full sprints, jumps, twirls and skips. That jet black hair you were born with, is now a cascade of golden blonde locks that fall just short of your tiny waist. Why won't you stop growing? I am not done. I am not ready to stop cradling you in my arms. I am not ready for the last of those squishy cheeks to slim down into a "big kid" face.
I used to ask you, "Who is your best friend?", and instantly you would reply, "MOMMY!". Now your response is the name of whatever kid you played with at school that day. You are growing so fast. Every day your vocabulary blows me away. Your imagination is exploding, and your bodily strength and coordination amaze me. I love it. I am trying to cherish it. Because just like you're no longer a baby, soon I know, you will be no longer a child. I am not ready for that. I know we have some time, after all, you are just shy of four years old. But just like I thought you would be a baby for so much longer, I know that this season will end before I am ready.
Now I will tell mothers after me, just as the ones before told me, cherish it. It really does fly by. Those never ending sleepless nights, they will be gone in a flash. Those first monumental steps, will too soon turn into steps walking away from you as they head into school. Those moments when you scoop up your baby and cradle them in your arms... well... soon they won't fit. So cherish it. Because they don't stop growing.
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