Today I was looking at a Facebook page of someone who just had a first baby, and I came to the "leaving the hospital picture", and suddenly I could totally feel how I felt with the newness of baby Gabriel, the first. When the blue blankets were just waiting to be used, all the clothes were new, the room was waiting, all with that sparkle-shine smell of newness...that thrill of anticipation to see this baby, the looooonnngg last week or two, just waiting, waiting. Back when the house was quiet. That pioneerdom of motherhood, waiting to see all the milestones, the first food, the first tooth. They seemed to take a lot longer, then. Now it feels like they whiz up. Suddenly the baby has four teeth and is starting to stand by himself, and that very first little baby Gabriel is almost five, with arms and legs that seem to lengthen startlingly quickly, a torso getting broader. And there is a shrieking, hurtling, bright-eyed two-almost-three year old between the two of them. Now the blankets are well used and there are many, and I have to pick up some new used clothes from Goodwill now and then to even out different sizes at different times. And time does fly.
Here's to remembering. I hope I always can.
