Where does the time go? Motherhood is a crazy place to be. That first year seemingly lasts forever; we anticipate our little one's first milestones and do our best to not feel competitive when Baby Jones meets his/her milestone first. We worry when their progression does not match up with our favourite baby guidebook or worse with other babies in the same age bracket. We almost wish all that time away, eager to end the sleepless nights, eager for them to sit up, roll over, wave/hi-5/pound, hear their first word... to see whom our little one will blossom into. Their first birthday arrives out of nowhere and we wonder how those very long days went by so very fast!
It's different with the second. The first one breaks you in, teaches you the ropes. The second one arrives to calmer arms, ready to rock and soothe. There is less time for panic and adaptation, and more time to take it aaaallllllll in.
Miss Eleanor was featured a week before Christmas while still perfecting her tiny toes and lips in her Mama's belly. Back then, she was Chicadoan to Mama Rita and Big Sis Verity, today she is Eleanor Sky Sheena Beckett.
I tried to look back and capture the things I remembered when my little ones were itsy bitsy ones. The hours spent holding and comforting this very tiny being with their funny shaped body and even funnier bodily movements that would always draw a loving smile across my very tired face.
How I wish I had a few photos of me breastfeeding my kids as newborns. It seems so impossible that I don't have any considering it was what I did 50% of the time. Gazing at their tiny face, covered with down, playing and kissing with their free hand, grasping for dear life onto one of your fingers.
How fast they grow… We forget how tiny they are, how their heads could be cradled like a large grapefruit in our palms with their bodies small enough to comfortably fit the length of our thighs.
The millions upon millions of smooches, barely a whisper of a kiss on their tiny faces once finally asleep...
In the blink of an eye, it's gone. Their chubby arms and legs branch out into lean limbs and that perfectly round belly melts away and stretches itself right out.
Just like that, Verity has become a big sister.
And so begins the journey of these 3 lovely ladies.
It's a crazy beautiful life.
xo