Son up to Son down

I used to hate when people would say to me like “You’re going to miss this,” “don’t blink,” or “the days are long but the years are short.” I remember a friend saying something along those lines when our middle child was a newborn. I was extremely sleep-deprived, covered in spit up, hadn’t showered in a few days and felt like I was losing my sanity by the hour. Why would anyone miss this?

But now, we are at the stage of parenting where the days feel like years and the years feel like seconds. There are times when I pray for it to go faster, to just get to bedtime because I’m exhausted. On the flip side, I also pray that time will slow down just a little bit, because I can feel it slipping through my fingers like sand in an hourglass. How can single moments feel like a lifetime ago and just like yesterday all the same time?

There is so much to love about the stage we are in. New adventures in school, trying sports for the first time, friendships and more helping hands on the farm just to name a few. As their world gets bigger, we are less of a “sun” and more of a “moon.” Their lives are becoming less centered around mom and dad and we are just quietly orbiting around the outside, catching glimpses into their lives as we can get them. No parenting book in the world can prepare you for that transition.

Each day brings new excitement in our lives, but the truth is the years have gone impossibly fast. Sometimes I catch myself looking at one of the boys and wondering “When the heck did he get so big?” Their faces have thinned out and I’m looking at miniature versions of their father instead of the porcelain-faced, chubby-legged little babies from both yesterday and a lifetime ago.

Cherish the little moments, write things down, take all the pictures. Because the days may be long, but the years go by oh so fast.