Making It A Point To Enjoy Every Minute Of Every Phase!

I once read in a magazine about this woman who was in the grocery store with her young children.  Her infant began crying uncontrollably.  Her other child then began whining about wanting to leave and about the baby crying.  She began to feel like everyone was staring at her and started to panic.  Then this elderly gentleman walked up to her and said, "I know it doesn't seem like it now, but someday you are going to miss this.  Enjoy every minute with them." 

My son has went through phases that well, I didn't love.  One very long phase he went through was reading nonstop (book after book after book, or the same book over and over and over again) for as long as I would read to him.  It was nice to have him snuggled on my lap and read to him (and know that I was helping him learn).  Most of the time though, it just annoyed me.  I was either pregnant and exhausted or taking care of a newborn and exhausted.  Reading for hours on end just didn't appeal to me.  We could easily burn through a stack of 20 books in about a half an hour.  This was not uncommon.  At that point I usually called it quits.  Besides, why did he want me to continue to read to him after I would start to fall asleep reading and my words would become so slurred that he couldn't understand what I was saying? 

For quite awhile now, reading has been put on the back burner.  Sure, he still loves books and will let me read to him but he just doesn't approach books with the same enthusiasm and passion as he once did.  That never really bothered me until today.

Today, I read him "The Ear Book".  It was a book we had just recently bought for my daughter for Christmas.  We have many Dr. Seuss books and my son loved all of them so I thought he would enjoy this one.  I sat down and read it to him.  At the end of the book he excited yelled, "Again!".  So I read it to him again, upon which he yelled, "Again!".

In that moment I realized how much he had changed.  How he wasn't this little toddler wanting to sit on my lap and be read to.  And though I never thought I would, I missed that phase of marathon book reading.  It was a precious time that I never get to have back and an experience that I will likely never have again since my daughter isn't the lest bit interested in books.

So with that I say to you, enjoy every minute with your children.  No matter how annoyed you are by the phase they are in, remember, it's just a phase.  Before you know it, it's gone...and you just might wish you could have it back!
Sincerely,
The-M-O-M