HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! As we have turned the calendars to 2009 this week I have been thinking a lot about how quickly time passes and how much difference one year can make! Last year at this time, Arden was still only 1 year old, and we had no idea that Daxton was even coming to our little family! Arden barely had enough hair for what we then called "pigtails," but what were really more like "antennae" (see picture below from just 1 year ago):
Last January, Arden still slept in a crib, used diapers and was still a baby in a lot of ways. Now my baby girl is a baby no longer. But lucky for me I have little Daxton to fill the baby void! He was such a great surprise for our family in 2008 and by far the best thing that happened to me last year! We couldn't love the little man any more than we do, but it is all flying by way too fast. It makes me sad to think that next year at this time, he will be 19 months old. He will be walking and talking and I won't have a baby anymore! Next year I will have an almost-4 year old girl and a full blown toddler boy. Has anyone heard that new song called "It Won't Be Like This For Long" by Darius Rucker? I heard it for the first time last week while I was driving home from work. The song talks about how some parts of having kids seem soooo hard and seem to drag on forever (staying up all night with newborns, trying to take screaming toddlers to preschool etc.) but how none of those phases last very long. The last part talks about a father trying and trying to put his little girl to bed (like we often do with Arden) and goes like this:
He lays down there beside her
till her eyes are finally closed;
and just watching her it breaks his heart,
because he already knows
It won't be like this for long
One day soon that little girl is gonna be all grown up and gone.
This phase is gonna fly by so he's trying to hold on,
because it won't be like this for long.
It might have been that I have been thinking about this subject lately, (or it might have been sleep deprivation), but by the end of the song I was crying because I know it is so true! (I have turned into a total crybaby since becoming a mom. It is embarrassing!)
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A couple of weeks ago during our church Christmas program, Preston was out in the foyer feeding Dax a bottle, and Arden and I were doing our usual Sunday routine (which mostly consists of me trying to keep Arden from coloring in the hymnbooks, trying to keep Arden from crawling under the seat to her friends in the two rows back, trying to keep Arden from singing the alphabet song at playground volume during talks, shushing Arden after she has asked "Is it over?" for the 20th time, etc.) and I thought to myself how nice it would be to be able to just sit quietly and listen to the Christmas music that the choir was singing. And then the thought struck me (hard) that before I know it Arden will grow up and I will have years and years, DECADES even, to sit quietly and listen to the Christmas music. But this was the only Christmas that I will have a two-year old Arden. Now I am sure that when I am 50-something and Preston and I are sitting very quietly in church I will be envying those young mothers struggling with their babies and toddlers in the bench in front of me and wishing that I could have some of these days back, as frustrating as they sometimes are. So, it is one of my 2009 resolutions to try and enjoy the journey more, and try to soak up as much of these baby and toddler days as I possibly can, because they will be over all too soon.
Anyway, enough of that! we have had a really fun week. We had a little party at our house for New Years Eve, and had a great time eating yummy food and playing on the Wii until well past midnight. Since we were playing games that involved drumming and dancing and generally looking stupid, there isn't a lot of photographic evidence. However, I did put the picture of Arden and I in our party hats (Thanks for sending it to me Manda!) at the top of this post.
I hope that everyone has a great 2009 and enjoys whatever part of the journey you are travelling this year!!
8 comments:
That a beautiful song and it's so true! I would be crying too! It's like that with me when I hear "Butterfly Kisses" and "Christmas Shoes" The miracle of children in your life is truly precious! We need to be reminded that we have them in our lives just a short time before they on their own! So, enjoy every minute even the bad ones!
I love reading your posts! I think all moms struggle to "enjoy the journey" more (I know I do!) =)
Sounds like you are off to a great new year!
geesh, you made me cry.
I struggle in enjoying the journey sometimes. I have been thinking of this a lot lately too. Hailey is turning 9, and I cant believe time has gone by so fast, I feel like I just brought her home.....
It is so true, they grow up so fast. Thanks for reminding me of that. With all the crazyness that goes on,sometimes you forget that it will be gone someday. and you will want it back.
I didnt mean to make you cry Al! I wrote this one kind of late at night, sorry it was so sappy, I must have been tired :)
You always have been a deep thinker, my love. You would make up the most amazing songs and sing them to yourself as we rode in the car and stuff like that. You grew up and left me, and it will happen to you, too. But enjoy each stage as it comes. There will be the hilarious, the tragic, and the mundane in all of them. Good thing you have your blog, 'cause now when I try to think back, a lot of things are just a blur. The everyday stuff doesn't stick in your mind. And journaling wasn't one of my strong points.
I think we all cry more when we become mothers! I loved your post...I definetly need to slow down and enjoy my kids while they are still little!
Hey...are we still going to see Twilight? We might end up renting the movie if we don't get to the theater soon!
Chrystie, that was such a cute post. I can totally relate! The other day Chloe came home from school with a ponytail in her hair and I said, "Oh! I didn't know Dad knew how to do ponytails." and she goes, "Duh, Mom. I did it myself." I had no idea she could do her own hair, and since then she has not let me touch it -- she wants it done her own way. How did that happen? Just *yesterday* I was putting in french braids and tying ribbons on the ends! Anyway, if you see her looking like an orphan, just know that she is doing her own hair now, so I have to give her some slack.
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