I’ve been talking a lot about some the harder parts of parenting, so I’m trying to add a few happy posts to balance it all out. To quasi-quote Obi-Wan Kenobi, I would like to bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness.
Sure, I still have to wipe a lot of bottoms and noses and clean up the odd bit of sick. Yes, it’s true that they both wake up multiple times every night and I am always tired. But there are some wonderful things happening right now, and some things that happened not too long ago that I want to hold in my heart forever.
I wish I could bottle these things and save them for later when they’re long gone. There are hundreds of photos and videos, but some moments can’t be captured by a camera.
So here is my list of 20 early years parenting moments that I don’t want to forget:
- When one of them sits on my lap and I bury my face in his hair. The smell of the baby shampoo and the soft texture of the babyish hair (never mind the possibility of the odd nit).
- The half-a-minute each day when my boys show their brotherly love for each other – a shy little cuddle, sharing a bit of food, or playing nicely without it ending in a screamfest.
- The way my toddler dances with pure joy to any music at all. Even the ring of a mobile phone.
- All four of us snuggling in bed together in the early hours of the morning.
- The way my eldest never stops talking and loves to explain how things work (putting his own fanciful take on it, of course).
- Hugging both of them on the sofa and watching kid’s movies on lazy Sunday afternoons.
- The snorty mcsnuffles sound my youngest makes while contentedly sucking his dummy.
- The day each of them first gripped my finger with their tiny hands when they were newborns.
- The feeling of having them fall asleep in my arms.
- My toddler’s hilarious forays into talking (yelling ‘caaat’ at the cat and saying ‘beep’ while touching your nose), which he refuses to perform while the camera is recording.
- Watching CBeebies. My eldest is starting to move on to CBBC and I’m really going to miss Mister Maker and Iggle Piggle.
- The way my boys cuddle their soft toys. We grow up to think boys aren’t as sentimental as girls but that is not how it begins.
- Getting to choose what clothes they wear every day.
- Reading them stories. My eldest is starting to read the stories to me now, which is also nice, but I was loving the sound of my own voice. 😉
- Holding their little hands. Having them not be ashamed to hold my hand anytime in public.
- Having them jump into my arms when I pick them up from childcare/school.
- Answering endless “why” questions.
- The way they play so happily together when they’re in the bath. I often dread bathtime, but someday they’ll be too big for bathtime together with mummy presiding.
- The way my eldest says “I love you mummy”. And I say “I love you too”. Then he says, “That’s great.”
- Singing them to sleep.
What are your favourite moments with your children? If you could bottle one thing from their early years, what would it be?
Obi-Wan photo by Wacko Photographer [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons