Don't Blink...

My baby will be six months old on Friday, which is odd because I only had him 5 minutes ago. 

When I first learned I was pregnant it seemed it would be a lifetime before my baby arrived. Now that seems like two days ago. It goes by so fast and I feel like we, as parents, only have so long to hold our babies, to cherish their first smiles, their squeaky giggles, their chubby thighs. (Although in my family chubby thighs stick around... TMI?)

A few weeks ago I came across a new mom while sitting with a friend. She was desperately trying to get her six week old baby to take a bottle. "I'm ready for him to get on solids," she said. 

That made me sad. It would be a good three or four months before her little boy would eat solid foods, why would you wish away a portion of your child's life? But then it hit me, haven't I done the same thing. 

I remember in those first few weeks, when the baby honeymoon had ended and my son wanted to nurse every 45 minutes around the clock. I had a passing thought, "I am ready for this baby to sleep through the night." 

My boy was 4 months old before he slept through the night for the first time. Did I really want to wish away those weeks? 

My sister has three children, she is gracious and kind and always offers the best advice. When my baby was just a few days old she told me to enjoy the minutes and to look him in the face. "Not enough people do that," she said. 

I have. There were afternoons when my son refused to nap and I sat on the couch exhausted, hungry, needing to shower, surrounded by unfolded laundry and I looked at his face. My house is a mess, my hair is dirty and my shoes didn't match, but I didn't care, it is a moment I won't get back.