I rocked all of my babies to sleep. From the time they were newborns until they got to the point of fighting sleep, we rocked. Every night. Sometimes several times a night. People would tell me I was spoiling them and, as they got a little older, I was often asked something along the lines of, "you're STILL rocking him?" There were nights that I didn't exactly enjoy it -- especially when "night" was around 3:00 in the morning. But, more often than not, I absolutely loved that time. Me and a sweet smelling baby, snuggled together, quality time (and, you know, catching up with recorded TV). If I could give any one piece of advice to new moms it would easily be
rock your babies! Because one day they won't want to be rocked anymore. Because one day you'll blink and your happy little chubster will have grown into a little boy. Because one day he'll pick up a Victoria's Secret advertisement off your dresser - an ad you never, ever thought to hide because, hello, you have BABIES - and say something along the lines of, "WOAH! Who is THAT?" and follow it all up with a whistle (true story, happened Monday).
Because one day your sweet little baby will be six.
And he'll still hug and kiss you when you drop him off at school and turn around and wave until he's made his way up to the building. And sometimes he'll still want to cuddle. And he's free with the "I love yous." But you know those days are fleeting. Because you remember the days when you rocked him, when he depended on you for everything, when his favorite place to be was nestled up against your chest. Days that are long gone.
The time goes faster between each birthday. Jaidan is six now. Six! Six more years and he'll be 12. Six years after that he'll be 18 and we'll be looking at cap and gowns and doing campus visits and there's a chance there'll be a girlfriend in the picture and Vicky's Secret ads will be the least of my worries.
Six!
Happy Birthday Jaybird!
