A while back, my husband was combing an old external hard drive for a photo he needed and together we ended up falling down the rabbit hole of old pictures and video archives.
There was so much footage of our older girls as tiny babies, cooing and gurgling and being all floppy and somehow not quite as cute as I recalled them being at one month old. Then there were countless clips of them as older babies and toddlers and I marveled at how much they have changed since then. The craziest thing is that I remember so little of those early baby stages, and if I hadn’t of taken those videos I think I would have forever lost the memory of that exhausting blur of years. Steve and I both looked at each other and kind of shook our heads like, “how on EARTH did we get through that?!”
The sleepless nights years, the insane hours he was working through it all, the night terrors, the daily dozen temper tantrums, the weariness. We both agree that parenting has been way, waaay harder than either of us ever imagined it would be.
That being said, I really feel like we are entering a new stage of life with our kids, having left the diapers and soothers and strollers behind. And it’s pretty awesome.
I can’t say I miss those early days. They were precious and fleeting and beautiful but I was just too tired and nearly-dead to really enjoy them.
What about you? Would you go back if you could?
I like where we are right now. They still need me but aren’t needy. Does that make sense? They can do so much for themselves now, yet still need us. I don’t feel exhausted like I did back then. Twelve, eleven and seven are great ages.
It’s a good place to be. I’d like to stay here for a while.
I would only go back if I knew what I knew now… that it would truly go by faster than I could believe. We too talk about how we hit “cruising altitude” this summer and we like it up here above the clouds. Sure, there is turbulence occasionally, but we can see the horizon. And it is a beautiful horizon.
Enjoy your beautiful girls!
I had easy(ish) babies with big age gaps between them, so I miss that stage. Even though Preston was up every 1.5-2 hour round the clock, all I had to do was roll over in bed, put a nipple in his mouth, and he was happy for another couple hours.
That being said, I quite enjoy having all three kids diaper-less, 2/3 of whom can put on their own seat belts, all of whom can WALK when we go places. I really love Preston at age 2 and want him to stay this way for a while. Liliana was so difficult at 3 and 4 that I’m kind of terrified to go through that again!
ps. I LOVE your girls’ matching outfits!! I miss doing that.
let me see…i sleep through the nights, i can sleep in on the weekends, i can run out for 10 minutes and leave them alone, they have playdates and i don’t see them for hours, we can talk about “normal” stuff, i don’t have to bring an extra full sized suitcase full of diapers, toys, extra clothes, bedding, etc.,
nope, i’m good…although i must admit i miss shopping with the stroller since it was my “bundle buggy” 🙂