Amaris E. Rodriguez
“Don’t blink.”
Everyone said that the second I gave birth to my baby. It wasn’t the first time I heard that popular saying but there is something about experiencing it yourself that really drives the message home.
This past weekend, my now 4-month-old started using a baby activity center, you know the ones where you sit them down in the middle of this contraption with toys surrounding them and you pray that your spouse – who refused to read the instructions because, men – put it together correctly. It hit me how quickly time really does go by.
It seemed like just yesterday he was a newborn with that fresh baby smell who slept the whole day and now he is giggling and spinning the toys around with his little hands.
As I sat in his nursery, with touches of Winnie The Pooh here and there, I began separating the clothes he has now grown out of – too quickly I might add – and made a pile of newborn to 3-month-old size clothes that he will never get to wear again.
They weren’t lying. About any of it.
I put aside the little onesie that says “I’m new here,” and his whole life flashed before my eyes. In five years he will be a child and then a teenager, and if he is anything like his father was, God help us.
While these moments of sadness hit me like little ocean waves when I think about how quickly the past four months have gone, I am also looking forward to all the firsts I will get to experience. His first steps, his first Christmas, the first day of Pre-K, the first insert-whatever-sport-he-ends-up-playing-here game (my dad is hoping he will grow up to be the next pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, our home team), and the list goes on and on.
But that is in the future and this is the now. This is what I should be enjoying. I don’t think we do that enough.
We ask children when they are little what they want to be when they grow up. We start preparing for our future careers in high school. We start dating with the idea that we will get married one day. We are constantly asking what is next.
Sebastian hadn’t even been born and I was asked if I wanted another child.
Honestly, I don’t know and that is okay. Right now, I want to focus on him.
I love that he is the first grandchild and nephew on my side of the family, getting all their love and attention. I love that he is my stepson’s first sibling and gets many cuddles from him.
I want him to be a healthy kind of spoiled, to be the center of my attention, and I think that is a great experience for first-time moms and their babies that we shouldn’t rush through or view in a negative light.
Right now, I will try to live in these fleeting moments and soak up as much of him as I can, focused solely on his first word, which fingers crossed will be “Mama.”
Amaris E. Rodriguez is a staff writer for The Northeast Georgian. Reach her at 706-778-4215 or arodriguez@TheNortheastGeorgian.com.