Life Lessons that Old Ladies Force on You in Grocery Stores

I've been a big supporter of NOT cherishing every moment of children's lives. Those well-meaning Grandmas in the grocery store must surely have amnesia. Nobody cherishes sleep-deprivation, baby vomit, potty training, endless messes, tantrums, or what happens when you absent-mindedly push the elevator button before your toddler has a chance to.

If you cherish those moments you are a crazy-person. 

But lately I have begun to see that tiny light at the end of the tunnel where your last baby is no longer a baby and, for the first time, you start to cherish the moments you are supposed to cherish.  Snuggles, funny songs with made-up lyrics, misspoken words like pasketti and meatbombs, crazy bedhead, limbless Barbies, twirls in a full-skirted dress, and sick figures sporting incredibly long arms and heads attached to a single, crooked, line for a body.

We'll have two more years together before she starts Kindergarten, but I know that those two years are faster than the same two years with my oldest daughter.  Those older siblings shrink the minutes in a day with homework assignments, theater practice, trips to the mall for the over-priced black tshirts at Hot Topic, crushes on boys, and Junior High choir concerts.

The baby is there, speaking too loudly, to try and be heard.  Missing out on snuggles because of Junior High power point presentations due tomorrow.  Dancing more wildly and twirling more enthusiastically to try and claim some of those shared minutes.

These are the moments that old ladies want us to cherish. They want us to stop and snuggle these final babies because there won't be any more after this. Once this baby is too old for the very sweet, sweet, moments that only babies and toddlers bring they become the one with recitals and concerts and field trips and crushes. 

I am going to finally listen to those old ladies.
I am going to cherish these final moments.
But not potty training. Never potty training.