“You’re Gonna Miss This!”

If you are a mom, then you have undoubtedly been told things like;
“They grow up so fast.” “Don’t blink.” “They years fly by.” And the list of cliche comments go on and on… I remember as a new mom hearing these all the time. Including the popular “you’re gonna miss this!” And I remember snapping back (in my mind) “No Erica, I most definitely will not miss averaging 3 hours of sleep, covered in spit up, breast milk and urine.” I remember thinking “What human in their right mind could possibly look back and miss this?!?”

Here’s where I eat crow…

Two nights ago I was at dinner with my crew when I captured a glimpse of my baby imitating some sassy character from Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse. (The result of sharing TV with a 9 yr old sister.) There was side eye and head waving and finger shaking involved as she spoke in some dramatic preteen tone of voice.

NOOOOOOOOO!
Mama is not ready for this…baby girl needs to slow her tush down.
I gasped looking at this face foreshadowing the years to come…but also mourning a crushing reminder that “she has grown up so fast” and that “the years have flown by” and all the while I’m doing everything in my power to make sure I “don’t blink” because I’ve watched my last child go from newborn to infant to baby to toddler to little girl and I can tell you with 1000% certainty that “I’m gonna miss this!”

(Insert tears of nostalgia)