Having a second baby around the house sure has made me nostalgic. Watching my little girl grow by the minute, learn new skills, try new foods and outgrow more clothes than I care to count has me searching my son’s now-3-year-old face for the little baby boy he once was. And it’s breaking my heart that I can’t find him anymore.

My son has grown into a little boy. A daring, charming, intelligent, beautiful little boy. The only resemblance left from his infant days are those big, shocking ice blue eyes – the color of the sky and larger than life, with eyelashes so long, they are perfect for butterfly kissing. And when he’s asleep, I catch a glimpse of my baby boy’s profile again (except with hair now), and I miss him all over again.

So many mothers and grandmothers told me when my son was first born to enjoy him while he was a baby, because they grow so fast. And I did. I soaked in all the time I had with him so I could remember him as a baby. Yet, these days I am having difficulty remembering what those days were like. They seem like a lifetime ago.

I remember the big things. He loved to be nursed to sleep. He loved swinging. He pooped so many times in the bouncy chair that it was forever deemed the “Roto-Rooter Chair.” He had the biggest smiles. He never slept through the night. He was a very determined little guy who insisted on sitting up at four months, crawling at five months, standing at six months, and taking his first steps at eight months. Barney made him stop in his tracks.

Because of my memory lapse with my son, I am afraid the same will happen with my daughter. I’m already looking into her eight-month-old face and searching for the newborn. I can still see her, but she’s starting to fade.

This time around, no one needs to tell me how quickly they grow up. I’ve already seen that trick first hand. So I am soaking her in just as fiercely as I did with my son, hoping I can hang onto these days years from now. I want to remember her full-belly laughs and big, contagious smiles. Her tiny, tiny feet that, at eight months old, finally fit into a size 1 shoe. The way she sighs with satisfaction after being nursed, with her content little smile and milk running down the side of her face. The way she grabs her Holly Hobby doll and hugs her tight every night when she goes to sleep. The way she dances to any music she hears. They way her eyes go from brown, to blue, to green, to grey (one thing’s for sure. I can’t wait to find out what color her eyes will end up being!).

It’s during these times that I have to stand back, and be sentimental about their baby days, but revel in the wonders of the toddler and preschool days. I would assume that these days go by too fast as well. Conversations with my son are getting much more sophisticated now. He’s learning so much everyday, I can just see the little wheels in his head spinning, and processing more and more. And I am so proud to see him making new friends and running and laughing with them with all his heart. One thing’s for sure, he gives everything his 100 percent.

And my almost-toddler daughter, with her 2.5 teeth and size 1 feet, is rolling all over the living room now. She talks more and more these days, and tries so hard to play with her big brother. She is so proud of herself, I can see it in her face. She’s almost crawling now, but why push her to grow up? She’ll be there soon enough.

The argument could be made that the toddler days don’t go by quickly enough. Most of those days are spent in the Terrible Twos, and who wants to be nostalgic about that? Ahh, remember that time when he threw a fit in Target and turned the exact same shade of red as the retail chain’s logo? And remember all the looks you got from customers as you repeated your Mommy Mantra, “No new toys for you today.” Yes, those were the days, my friends.

Those were the days.

About the Author: Kristine Roberson owns http://www.MyMamaSaid.com – a website for all moms – and Roberson Publishing (http://www.RobersonPublishing.com), a web development and desktop publishing firm. Kristine also runs http://www.MomsPDA.com, a site for moms who love and count on their handheld computers. She and her husband are raising their 3-year-old son and infant daughter in Northern California.

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