On Days Like This

On days like this, when Angela isn't on a good sleep schedule (for whatever reason, this time I'm not so sure), barely napping (as in today with 2 naps - one that I don't think hit 30 minutes), a bit clingy and crabby at the same time, and totally bored with everything I try to do to entertain her -

I try to stop and remember that there are so few days that she will be in this stage of her life. I will only get to experience her as a baby once, for about a year (before she starts walking & talking) and that if I resent these days or wish they'd go by faster, I'm actually cheating myself. I can never go back to these days once they're over.

Someday in the future I'm going to be with her somewhere and a cute young baby will pass by and I'll say "Oh, I miss those days." I don't want to miss them because I was too busy trying to survive them, I want to miss them because I was able to appreciate how precious she was and how awesome it is that I am her mother and that I get to participate in guiding her on the many paths that she will travel during the course of her life. I want to know that I did the best job raising her and that I enjoyed the process as much as I could. Because, no matter what my salary is, or how in-shape I am, being her mom is both the hardest and most rewarding job I will ever have.