Ordinary...

Left on my nightstand

The days go by in slow motion. Cook and clean and do the laundry.  Change diapers, clean up messes, sooth crying babies.

Watch cartoons and fingerpaint.  Play with play dough and try not to step on the Legos.

The weeks and months go flying by and I can't remember yesterday because it was another ordinary day.

What did we eat for dinner?  Did I go to the store or not?  It's so hard to remember the details of things that are the same over and over and over again.

And yet, I don't want to forget.  The ordinary snuggles of a 2, almost 3 year old, who only wants to be held, even if I have to sit down so he doesn't break my back.

The oldest, who will much too soon be taller than I.  Who creates things out of Legos and wants to tell me all the details of the epic battles his father is waging on the Wii.

The babies, who will all too soon be walking and then running and I won't remember what it was like to watch them realize they could come to me on their own, and then do it.  Who are learning to feed themselves, but still think they haven't eaten unless I've fed them.

These are the things that happen every day until they don't.  And I will wonder when I didn't notice that they had stopped happening.

There will be other ordinary things by then.  Things to be noticed and then forgotten.

The ordinary goes on, but sometimes I want to stop and catch it, if only as a whisper in the palm of my hand. 

This was the prompt for last week's 5 Minute Friday and while I didn't have time to write it then I couldn't let it pass.