I have the Time

So, My amazing aunt (shout out to Mary Rose) is always posting positive parenting stuff on her facebook page and the latest one was a blog post that got me thinking more gratefully.  You can find it here.  

Basically, it talks about the time that this woman has, as a mom, for her daughter.

I may not be in the same situation that she or other mom's are, (and aren't we all in our own place and situation, each different and unique?) but I have been looking much more lately at the time that I don't have.

When she first started sleeping well, I would count the minutes I spent cuddling with her before I knew I should put her down... Lately I have been counting the minutes spent wondering when she will go to sleep.  

At work, I am counting the minutes that I am away from her, especially the ones where I am not with clients.  Counting and berating myself for the fact that I am at work when I wish I could be at home with my little girl.

This post made me think about all the things I could be counting:

 

Every minute spent with her and how precious it is

The car rides where we sing, and boy can she sing, even at eighteen months

The mornings and evenings of playing in the pillows (this happens all the time, who am I kidding)

The times where I am cooking and she wants "up, Momma. See"

Every second going swimming, where she is a variable fish and a lot braver than Momma would like at times

Morning cuddles with the bottle and chatting with Dadee on facetime

Every snowman built, snowball thrown (or eatten)
Every second/ hour pushing her on the swing
Night time scriptures and story books
Pointing out every "BIRDIE!!" in the sky and trees

The times where she brings me a story and reads to me 

(Lately it is Jillian Jigs Maker of marvelous Pigs- "Pigs, Pigs, Pigs.  The end")

The back rubs that she gives to let me know that she wants me to rub her back

The times where she is angry, sad or frustrated and we sit on the stairs and cuddle and chat about feelings

The fish kisses, head butts, butterfly kisses, nose kisses, etc

The itchy game- "Momma, itchy nose, itchy eye, other eye itchy, itchy ear, other ear itchy..." Until she have covered, and I have scratched, every body part that she knows the name of... She especially finds it funny when I itch her elbows and eyebrows.

Every independent and sometimes infuriating (for us both) minute of getting dressed and taking care of her dolls

Every minute "goin shoppin, shoppin, shoppin!!" (She loves to shop)

Every word, song, number that she says while trying so hard to communicate as we do 

Singing and dancing at home, sometimes to a song sometimes to her singing

Every minute that she hugs Huckleberry and says "I love you, Hucka".

Every prayer where she has to thank God for everything that she can see and the fire

Cutting and painting nails and doing hair- I am so glad that she is a girl and that she likes those things because Momma loves doing them with her
Every minute of the weekend, spent doing or not doing but just together

Every breath that I breathe where I get to be her Momma and she is my Babee, happy or sad

I sure love being this little girl's Momma, and I wouldn't change that.

So, instead of looking at what I don't have- more time with her, more kids, more patience, more... EVERYTHING that I don't have, I want to, instead, look at what I do have and what this little girl brings to my life. 

Because it is so blessed with her in it!