Somebody slow it down. Please.
It’s going by much too fast. My life. And theirs.
Can we just slow it down? Stop it, even.
***
To think, I couldn’t wait for this little boy to grow up.
But now I’m done with growing. I want it to end.
Because this boy face is too old now.
This boy body too big.
And his rhythm is now independent of me.
His rhythm is all his own.
It, and time, march on.
While I wince at just trying to keep up.
***
It’s going by too fast.
It’s what everyone says.
We all know it.
It’s so true.
There’s no way to stop it.
But that’s all I want to do. All I can think about. Now more than ever.
Read More in Sarah Writes, three kids
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“While I wince at just trying to keep up.”
You said it!
That first picture is so sweet, Sarah. And the second? Cracks me up :) Mostly because I love his shoes.
.-= Corinne´s last blog ..Hope for remembering =-.
I bet he still enjoys wearing shorts on his head from time to time. => What a handsome little guy, marching to his own rhythm. As you said so eloquently, sometimes all we can do is watch (and be thankful for pictures and memories).
.-= Stacia´s last blog ..The Night Watch =-.
Okay, it breaks my heart a little to see those two pictures side by side. The first is where my kids are now (roughly), the second is yet to come. I’m with you. I don’t want them to grow up!
.-= Jana@Attitude Adjustment´s last blog ..I Don’t Want a Dog =-.
I just want to freeze them at times, when they are so sweet and remind me why I am on this journey to begin with. I don’t wish for it to go faster, only to savor it, as much as I can, while I can.
Beautiful post, Sarah!
.-= Maria´s last blog ..Life in the cry lane… =-.
Sarah, this is just what I was feeling today. My photographs only span two years so far, but I remember taking each one as though it were two months ago, or two weeks.
Sometimes I feel I haven’t even learned to count in years yet.
Their little lives fly by so fast – a metamorphosis to rival a butterfly’s (with, thankfully, a much longer last phase) – or a frog’s, which is the silly little way I wrote about it today.
.-= Leslie´s last blog ..What’s in a name? =-.
Oh, sweet friend, it hurts my heart to read this. I wish for you what I wish for myself: enough time in the days of their childhoods to drink it all in while it’s here.
Love his red Chucks.
.-= Kristen @ Motherese´s last blog ..Mama Needs a Brand New Bag: Scent of a Woman =-.
“enough time in the days of their childhoods to drink it all in while it’s here”
I just had to write it again, Kristen, because it is so achingly sweet and true. Enough time. To drink it all in. Childhood.
Amen. Make it stop. And go. I can’t decide. That’s the dilemma, right? Oh, I quit :)
My neighbor told me she saw a man roller blading around the neighborhood when she suddenly realized it was my son! My son – a man! A kind of gigantic man! And what’s really annoying is how much they want to get bigger and bigger and bigger. You just want to pull them aside and tell them there’s no rush, really, in growing up. Slow down. Only adulthood awaits.
.-= Linda at Bar Mitzvahzilla´s last blog ..Roommates of Doom =-.
Love the adorable photos! Yes, it does go way too fast. Come August I will have two teenage boys in HIGH SCHOOL. Ack!
.-= Erica@PinesLakeRedhead´s last blog ..Spin Cycle: Quotes =-.
When I see the older kids and all the fun and cute things they can do because of their age, I keep thinking and saying, oh I can’t wait until my Little Miss can do this…I can’t wait, I can’t wait, I can’t wait.
But when I really think about it, and just seeing how much she has grown in these 17 months, and how quickly everything has flown by, I can wait. I really can.
.-= Justine´s last blog ..Our children’s children. =-.
His rhythm might be independent of you, but remember that music is a wonderfully complex, layered beast…and your contributions are in there, be them melody, harmony or rhythm.
.-= Liz @ Peace, Love & Guacamole´s last blog ..Siblinghood =-.
Gorgeous. And heartbreaking. GAAAAAA!!! My brain just exploded trying to fit it all in. I am so scared this is passing me by too quickly and so excited to know them as adults. It’s all part of the journey, right? I have to say that parenthood has given me empathy for my parents and grandparents in ways I never could have imagined.
.-= Shawna´s last blog ..Love for a first born child =-.
God, it’s so bittersweet that it makes you want to tear your hair out, doesn’t it?
Both of my girls lost their “baby face/body” so early that it made me want to wail. Unfair, I tell you! No more cuddles of fat cheeks and little folds. Makes me weepy just to think about it.
.-= TheKitchenWitch´s last blog ..The Spring Dessert You Need =-.
You and that chubby cheeked child are just way to ridiculously cute for me to leave without a comment. :)
e.
.-= Boy Crazy (@claritychaos)´s last blog ..Minivan Convert, revived =-.
Funny how like children we are in not wanting it to end. I am loathe to let it slip by and then, even though I do it through tears and with a lump in my throat, there is new magic and deeper love. Fondness. I am terrified, but tentatively on board.
.-= Amanda´s last blog ..Catch it to you =-.
You have a way of making me smile and almost cry at the same time. He’s not even my little (big) boy and yet looking at these photos makes me feel as though I’ve watched grow out of that sweet little baby phase. If you figure out how to make it stop, let me know, okay?
.-= ck´s last blog ..go your own way =-.
Sniff. Sigh.
Beautiful.
.-= Ann’s Rants´s last blog ..Signs you were a waitress… =-.
Yup. Children seem to blossom overnight into these incredible, radiant, independent creatures…while I just get older.
.-= 6512 and growing´s last blog ..I dig dandelions (and apricot blossoms) =-.
What Aidan said, i totally agree with. I can’t decide what I want. Slow it down or move it along? I just want to enjoy All the Moments. Savor it. Cherish it. Capture it. Live it. But I also want to get back to Me. Enjoy Me. Remember the Me that I know is in there. This was so beautiful. So honest. Pure. Real.
Loved it. And the pictures? Awesome. You are too cute and your boy is DELICIOUS!
.-= becca´s last blog ..Birthday Boy =-.
If I could invent anything, it’d be a freeze frame to just savor and bask in the fleeting beauty of my children. It’s like Eat, Pray, Love where if you focus on the “blue,” it evades you.
.-= Kelly´s last blog ..Celebrating our Earth =-.
i think about this every day. i want them all to freeze in time until i have absorbed every bit of them that i need to. i want a videographic memory so i can remember everything about them at every stage.
i want to tell my oldest just to hold on a minute, stop for a second. i missed some of his growing in the last two years and i just need a bit of time to catch up.
hopefully someone in heaven has the DVR recording all of these tough early days.
.-= Stone Fox´s last blog ..Grateful (but not Dead) (almost, though.) =-.
I see the contrast in my own children, my 4 year old vs my 14 month old. I have trouble remembering what the oldest was like when he was as young as his brother and it freaks me out! My husband tells me I will, when the baby is no longer a baby that I’ll have a place in my memory for both of them at that age. I’m worried I won’t. Time is marching on…if only we could hold on!
P.S. I’m sitting at my desk, trying to start my day. This tear isn’t helping, LOL.
.-= Christine LaRocque´s last blog ..Money counts and we’re counting =-.