This is the time to remember...

As a stay-at-home-mom I spend most of my time in the kitchen preparing meals and doing endless dishes, stooped in front of the washer and dryer doing laundry or in the bathroom wiping someone’s bottom and/or changing an offensive diaper. Five years ago, the very thought of this as a daily routine, for any human being, sounded to me like legitimate torture. Today, however, it feels a bit like paradise courtesy of my precious children.

I’d be lying if I said that I wake up in paradise every morning. There are some mornings that I’d rather lay by the ocean, alone, sipping a margarita or simply stay curled up in bed and finish reading a delightful book. On those particular mornings, I remind myself that leisure activities will undoubtedly be a part of my life again in due time. It’s not a difficult reminder because, truth is, I have a firm grasp on a little known fact that I didn’t so much as have a finger on five years ago and that is the idea that our children are only this small once and we cannot get this precious time back. With some help from Billy Joel I can more eloquently portray this idea, “This is the time to remember, Cause it will not last forever. These are the days to hold onto, Cause we won’t although we’ll want to.”

Where am I going with all of this? I’m attempting to capture, in writing, my current daily paradise. My now. My children are so sweet and affectionate at this point in their lives and I fear the future when they no longer ask to be cuddled or run to me when one of their friends isn’t being nice. I want to capture this time, right now, so that when the future that I fear arrives I’ll find comfort by reflecting on what was my paradise, once upon a time.

Here’s my snapshot of my now for the future me (did you get all that?)…

My daughter loves to spend time with me. She loves to be together as a family. She eagerly puts her coat on just to go to the grocery store with me. She asks us to dance with her every day. When I begin preparing dinner in the kitchen, I know it’s just a matter of minutes before a small chair is pulled up beside the kitchen counter and I hear, “Mommy, what can I help you with?” Late in the evening we cuddle in the recliner. During car rides or moments after being tucked into bed I’m asked, “Will you tell me a story about when you were a little girl?” And then there is always the unprovoked, unexpected and much-appreciated, “I love you, Mommy.” The sound of her small, sweet voice over the phone and the fact that she stopped whatever she was doing, and she’s always very busy, to talk to me on the phone. Who knew that such a tiny person could give such strong “bear hugs”? I’m proud to have nurtured in her a carefree nature and the comfort and security to walk around pant-less after a nap filling the house with her beautiful singing voice. At bedtime, there is a nightly expectation that I will rub her back. Like her father, she has a voracious thirst for information and she always comes to us for answers. She’s constantly repeating the fact that she loves her family to me and to her friends.

My son is the biggest cuddle-bug I have ever known. He starts first thing in the morning when I lift him out of his crib and he immediately puts his head on my shoulder and his entire body sinks into mine for a long hug. During random intervals in the day he grabs my face with both hands and gently rests his forehead on mine. Sometimes, when someone else is holding him and I walk past he lunges for me and wants to be in my arms. When his Daddy carries him off to bed he repeatedly gives me kisses until he’s whisked away. He squeezes his little hands around my fingers when we walk together. He loves my cooking. He pumps his arms after taking a bite of food that he’s especially fond of. He’s ticklish and he loves it when we tickle him. Bath time equals fun time. We could spend hours chasing each other around the couch and he squeals like a schoolgirl the entire time. At the first sound of music his little body starts moving and grooving. He laughs after he makes us laugh. It’s always obvious when nap/bed time is approaching because he plays with his hair and sucks on his bottom lip. We manage to happily keep each other entertained while waiting in the doctor’s office. His sister is his hero.

So you see, when those daily and mundane Mom chores fall in-between all that sweetness combined with a firm grasp on the aforementioned little known fact, it feels a bit like paradise. The mere act of recording these soon-to-be memories made me grin from ear to ear for the past thirty minutes. I’m pleased to have had the time to think about my future and then prepare for it in this way because, after all, this is the time to remember.