Wednesday, August 5, 2020

To Our Children

     One of the things I always made sure to buy when I found out I was expecting you was a beautiful baby book. I had these great intentions of recording all your important milestones, all those fun firsts, all those little details I wanted to remember, always.


     I'm sorry to say I have failed you miserably.
     With you, my dear oldest son, I did the best. I completed most of your first year, but the rest of your book is blank.
     With each of the rest of you, I took great care in filling out everything I could those first few weeks, but after that the pages remain blank.
      The pages of your books aren't blank because I wasn't proud of you, or didn't love you, or wasn't rejoicing and enjoying each of those precious firsts and important milestones.
      I might not remember which tooth you got first, but I do remember your first word. "Papa!" I was the one that birthed you, nursed you, changed 95% of your diapers, and all four of you said Papa as your first word.
      I don't remember the day you enjoyed your first solid food, but I remember how you used to love when I brought out your little baby food grinder and how you used to sit watching me prepare it, waving your arms and kicking those little feet of yours in eager anticipation of the yummy food you were about to get.
     I don't remember the day you were weaned, but I remember how you used to tuck your foot under my chin and held the corner of your blanket as I fed you.
     I might not remember the exact moment of your first smile or laugh, but I do remember how you used to giggle when we played Peek-a-boo with you for what felt like hours on end.
     I might not remember the first book I ever read to you, but all four of you loved the Clap Your Hands book. Both your Papa and I can still recite the entire thing by heart because we read it to you so often.
    The pages of your baby books might be mostly blank, but my mind is filled with precious memories from those days. I was so busy enjoying those moments I didn't have time to pick up a pen and write them down at the risk of missing part of those moments.
    I hope someday you will understand.
    Love,
    Your mother

7 comments:

  1. I could have written most of this for my children (I only have two) I TRIED to keep up their books -but, as time went on, the pages had more blank spaces. Now, with my grandchildren, (six of them) the oldest one has picture albums that I filled, the next one has a few, the next one has one and the last three don't even have a book. I have pictures in envelopes in different drawers, and files and files of pictures stored on my computer of them, but don't have hardly any developed. I should work on that! All the kids (ages 4-12)love looking at the books over and over. I think the little ones would like to see pictures of themselves. Someday! Thanks for sharing your letter to your kids with us.

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  2. Those are very precious and special words.

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  3. This also could have been me. Good intentions, but actual mothering was taking place and was more important than writing things down. Thank you for sharing this beautiful letter with all of us.
    Blessings,
    Betsy

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  4. I think we all have those blank baby books. Our middle daughter was VERY upset to discover her book hadn't been filled in. Of course, I told her what every mother says: "Wait til you have children of your own." Our third child, poor kid, didn't even have a book at all!

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  5. Aw. My MIL recently passed, and my husband got his baby book- which he didn't even know existed. He's in his 60s now, but we had such fun looking through it. It even had a baby curl. It was all filled up, though schoolage, which was incredible, considering she had 7 kids in 9 years, and she was very young- (got married at 13, Early 20s when she had the last one) so that's a lot of baby books for be filling out!!! But now it's a cherished keepsake!
    LOL, us, on the other hand...

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  6. This is a beautiful post, and I'm sure they do understand... Or will one day.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment. I love hearing your thoughts.