Many mornings I
wake my she is 16-
going on 17 daughter
with a gentle crooning
of the theme song from
the animated TV show,
The New Adventures
of Winnie the Pooh.
Gotta get up,
gotta get going,
we're gonna see
a friend of mine....
He's round and
he's cuddly, I
love him because
he's just
Pooh Bear
Winnie the
Pooh Bear.....
She indulges my
sentimental whim with
a sleepy smile, even
if she is cringing
slightly inside ~
My mom, what a
cornball!
This particular
morning was a
Monday, the toughest
day for her to get
up and get going,
but she responded
with a sleepy smile,
anyway.
Surprise, I declared.
It was all a dream.
You are really still
just three years old.
Another sleepy smile.
Would you want to
do it all over again?
I murmured, softly.
I don't think so, she
replied, her hand
reaching for mine
in the dark.
Stroking the smooth
skin of her arm, I
whispered, I would.
No, not go as far back
as when I was three,
but back to when she
was three and I was
expecting her brother.
I'd relive those moments
when I would nuzzle her
tender neck, inhaling its
fresh-cut grass and
vanilla scent.
I would savor the feel of
her tiny hand in mine.
We would enjoy one
more bedtime story, one
more cuddle where my arms
could encompass the
whole of her little body.
Of course, nostalgia has
a way of wiping away
the sheer exhaustion of
running a household and
caring for little ones.
 |
| Me, capturing the sweetness of my niece, at Thanksgiving. |
Part of childhood's
sweetness, like a lot of
wonderful times, such
as Christmas, wedding days,
puppyhood or favorite
vacations, comes from its
vacations, comes from its
brevity.
Pooh Bear, Elmo,
Blue, Little Bear
and Barney, I miss
you, mainly because
I miss the small faces
that lit up when your
theme songs peppered
our days.
If you could re-live a
sweet time in your life,
would you do it?
This sappy mama would
love to hear it about it.
Life would be no better than
candlelight tinsel and daylight
rubbish if our spirits were
not touched by what has been.
~ George Eliot, Middlemarch
xx
Suzanne
56 comments:
You are a magic-maker Suzanne and what a blessing you are in the lives of those whom you're entwined.
I hope your lovely daughter has enjoyed a week filled with things that have made her heart sing....no doubt she treasures your morning serenades wholeheartedly.
To answer your question I would scoot back in time to when I was nine and my love of books, butterflies and daydreaming were indulged without interruption and shared with my best friend Lindsay - happy days!
Oh this is lovely, Suzanne...you really do live life's little moments! I LOVED raising my children, and was always aware of how quickly it was passing. I was at a baby shower for my daughter-in-law this past week and we all wrote cards with advice. My advice was to enjoy your children...because they grow up in the blink of an eye...
oh yes! i was at my very best when my men were little ones. things were less complicated, and my health was more predictable. i love the song playing on the blog as it stirs a very special memory: my eldest sang this as a solo in 6th grade--melting the heart of his parents.
michele
Suzanne, these are such beautiful thoughts, you made my heart stir. Although I have no children of my own I was reminded of things my mom has said to me in the past few weeks. Let's face it, none of us are getting any younger and wether you are a mother, a child looking at one more wrinkle on your parents face or your own, you yearn for simpler times and happy times.
I love visiting here, and I say it every single time I write a comment because you make me think, and feel. I ponder things that perhaps I had not thought about, you make me aware of feelings that were perhaps buried or not even felt.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful memories and happy thoughts on your precious children, and your blessings.
Have a great day, elizabeth
How very *very* Sweet, Suzanne.....
....can I just say, I truly *love* your writing....I *love* coming here....your prose, your way with words, it's so lovely and lyrical....lulls me like the lullaby I can almost here in the backdrop of this post.....
....and I *always* enjoy your photography, your unique lens on life, your focus, always a visual treat....love the view you invite us into....always like rounding a sweet corner coming here, and hearing yourself happily exclaim, "oh!" : ) ....
....thanks for the beauty m'dear....you have mastered life's art of "thinking on things that are lovely" and you help us to do the same.
What a *treasure*
I'd love to revisit myself with my children when they were little and I'd tell me to be more RELAXED with them and just enjoy them and the moment. I was a very worried mother when they were little, always concerned that I was doing the 'right' thing.
So yes please, I'd like to go back, stop time, and enjoy.
I'm much more relaxed now they are teenagers and we have such fun, but I do regret those early days of self imposed angst.
xxx
ps I bet your daughter LOVES her early morning wake up call! I still sing to my 17 year old son (a new made up song every morning) and he always wakes with a smile :o)
There are many moments I would relive again, for sure. They are mostly in my childhood, NOT MY TEEN YEARS! Since I have no children, I would have to go back to times when I was a child, in particular, those times on the old tapestry rug, in my front room, DANCING, as my father played CLAIR DE LUNE on his old piano. I can still FEEL the sunlight streaming in through the arched French doors, warming my face. I was three years old, and already doing well-formed pirouettes, I was told.
That is the tinsel of my life. The music of my past and the memories of my present. Thank you.
Anita
I've never had children, but I am 8 and 11 years older than my sisters and I remember the days of their childhood with nostalgia. I absolutely loved being a big sister to little ones and would give anything to feel one of their little hands in mine again.
xo
Claudia
i would go back. they grown so fast. i love the young adults my children have grown into, but i miss them as little ones. great post suzanne.
Aw, Suzanne, you made me all misty this dreary morning. My daughter is merely a year behind your own sweet girl. Tess is a teen whose smile illuminates a room and it's been that way ever since I can remember. My memory is one of walking into her buttery yellow sunlit room and gazing upon that early morning sleepy-eyed but smile brightened face, arms uplifted for me to remove her from her crib.
Would I go back? I'm not sure. That requires further thought. As always, you encourage reflection...in the most wonderful of ways.......thank you so much for that.
How sweet - beautiful post!
I would love to have one day where my boys could be little again. My oldest is almost 13 & just as tall as me. I miss holding him in what he use to call "up hugs". I think it's time to pull out the photo albums & cherish all of the wonderful memories of my two young men as "little boys". Have a wonderful day!
Diane/Ohio
Oh my sweet baby girl wakes up every morning with a giant grin on her face. When she wakes from a nap though she's always fighting it! Despite that though I know I'll miss these days when they are gone.
How sweet your words are.
If she doesn't already, someday your daughter will appreciate reading them back.
Biz
Sweet Suzanne...what a blessed daughter you have for being raised by a beautiful and sentimental Mother, such as you...
I would indeed go back. I would definitely through the statement, ” just a minute” out of my vocabulary, and be more in the moment with my one and only.
I so miss the days where she would wake up, toddle her way into my room, crawl into bed each morning and snuggle with her Mama. She would end this time together with a tradition we established on that old bouncy springy bed... Emily would sit on my hips as I lay on my back, and is bounce her high in the air, while holding her hands, all the while singing a made up song called, 'Boody Boody Boo'. lol Ahhhhh, the memories of that sweet little one, when it was still 'ok' to snuggle your Mama on a whim....
Thank you for the step back in memoryville.... I so loved the 2-6 year age best of all.
Gretchen
Sweet Suzanne...what a blessed daughter you have for being raised by a beautiful and sentimental Mother, such as you...
I would indeed go back. I would definitely through the statement, ” just a minute” out of my vocabulary, and be more in the moment with my one and only.
I so miss the days where she would wake up, toddle her way into my room, crawl into bed each morning and snuggle with her Mama. She would end this time together with a tradition we established on that old bouncy springy bed... Emily would sit on my hips as I lay on my back, and is bounce her high in the air, while holding her hands, all the while singing a made up song called, 'Boody Boody Boo'. lol Ahhhhh, the memories of that sweet little one, when it was still 'ok' to snuggle your Mama on a whim....
Thank you for the step back in memoryville.... I so loved the 2-6 year age best of all.
Gretchen
Lovely and quite timely for me - have just returned home from an out of state visit to my daughter (for her birthday). I felt the years that have passed so strongly. I was looking at her 26 year old face and wondering where my baby had gone and I heard a little voice telling me she was right there looking back at me - same eyes, same heart. So happy to have memories, what lucky creatures we are.
I don't know if I would go back to any particular time. I love my life now, have loved it most of the way though. I wouldn't mind freezing right now sometimes :)
I would go back to my kids' babyhoods in a heartbeat....why does it have to be so bittersweet to see them grow up??? I am a sappy mama too. I whistle to wake up my kids - my mom did too - they grumble - I did too - and they'll probably wake their kids like that too. And Elizabeth will probably wake her kiddos with a song!
You are so very good at cherishing the moment Suzanne. I would be 12 and my brother 19 and the two of us riding down the road in his 75 Mustang with the top down. We were often mistaken for two girls because he had long beautiful blond hair and I had long brown hair. That was a surprise for sure.
So beautiful, and yes there are moments I would love to relive, especially when my kids were young. I remember watching the movie Peggy Sue Got Married, and in one scene she sees her now deceased mother for the first time in her flashback. She goes on and on about how young her mom looks and how much she loves her. Back then I saw it as just another scene in a movie, now it makes me cry!
Kat :)
Hi sweet friend,
What a lovely post...And to answer your question, YES! I would go back and relive those sweet toddler days in a heartbeat. As a wise mother once told me, "the days seem long but the years are short" - describes those toddler/baby days! However, wanting to go back makes me keenly aware to be PRESENT with where my girls' are RIGHT at this moment.
Darn! Parenthood can be so cruel sometimes!
xo~Jill
I have ALWAYS said that I would go back and live high school again! But only if I got to know what I know now. (Is that allowed?) And I would absolutely go back and have my kids as littles again .... I LOVED that time in my/their lives. I would make a few different choices when it came to raising my son - just a few, but they are important things! ;)
" I don't think so " would probably be my answer, too. I have a lot of sweet moments in my childhood, my youth, my motherhood ...and I cherish all these good times and the sincere deep emotions they evoke. To re-live them again is to re-live my life up to this point :)...I rather want to remember these moments and make sure not to allow them to fade away. Thinking of such sweetness, especially seeing my son maturing in front of my eyes, it makes me realize that a 13-year-old needs as many hugs as a 3-year-old. Time is precious, so better make every moment count .
Thank you for your thoughtful posts and soulful images, Suzanne. Visiting here has always inspired me to be a better person.
Love how you greet each day and gentle wake your daughter! There are clips of my life that I'd love to revist. One would be mothering my sweet {not so little} boy.
Jo
Never fails that you make me cry. Seriously Hallmark needs to be busting down your door. Love that picture of you with your niece. Made me miss your sweet smile so much. Okay so a sweet time to live over....hmmm.....maybe those first early years when it was just B and I. Knowing him now all these years later it would be sweet to be a fly on the wall and watch it all play out again. Or those first moments when M was placed in my arms and I felt such disbelief. That would be surreal.
I teared up reading this, Suzanne! After reading this, I felt that I must be doing more to bring a smile to my loved ones. You're amazing, and it seems to me your daughter inherited or imbibed your sweetness and has herself become as sweet or sweeter. I love that photo of you with your niece. Maybe you look so youthful because you're always smiling. I oughta try that! Thanks for sharing these moments, these are the moments we all should be so lucky to have...
Oh, I hope your beautiful daughter has had a wonderful week and you and she have created even more memories.
If I were to go back I would go back to when I was a little girl and my best friend Stephie and I would play with our dolls and make all kinds of clothes and create lives for them...we played with our dolls endlessly. And then we would go play on the swings together...not a care in the world except to have fun and laugh a lot.
That said, she and I are still best friends, even though we live on different coasts, and still laugh a lot. We were both blessed with wonderful parents so their memories are entwined with the memories we share today. So, if I had to go back, that's not a bad place to go. XO
Letting go of our little ones is one of the hardest things to do in life, me thinks. You've nailed it with the magic of brevity.
As we said our final goodbyes to our dog this week, I've realized it is never enough. Never enough cuddles, enough walks, enough 'I love yous'. At the moment, you think your time together will last forever because you can't picture it any other way. It is about savoring the moment, and the moment in itself being enough. Capturing the moment through photos definitely helps to keep the memories - thank God for cameras!
Another beautiful post Suzanne. I used to wake my kiddos up singing "Goodmorning Starshine" to them. Oh how I would give anything to be able to go back for a minute and sing to them again. Time passes far too quickly for sure. . .
I would relive my girl's childhood in a heartbeat. Kate, who is adopted came home with us when she was 10 days old and I remember a friend saying, "Susan, just enjoy every minute, it goes so fast." Me, caught up in the moment, mind racing with all I needed/wanted to do, shook my head that I understood. But I didn't really. I do now. I feel as though I didn't "cherish" that time enough. Maybe this is a lesson learned after the fact. But, I'd love a do-over.
Best,
Susan
Oh to feel those little hands in mine again would be heaven! Thanks for stirring up some memories on this great day Suzanne!!
Enjoy your weekend!
I do know how you feel...those days are sao special. But, while I'm still in the thick of it, I can tell you that I have to make a real effort to savour those moments at the time...it's so easy just to let it all whizz by in a blur of nappies!!
Sarahx
I would go back....to spend more time with my mom. I would most especially re-live the past 10 years, those were the worst for her. She suffered from so much loneliness and depression.
Beautiful, thought-provoking post, Suzanne!
I loved reading this sweet post and how you expressed yourself so well in those moments spent with your baby. For me, yes I'd go back in a heartbeat to the times I got to spend with my Dad, only I would never never want to relive when we lost him. Love all of your sweet images on here too Suzanne. xoxo ~Lili
awwww...so so so sweet...I remember those days...I KNOW a lot of them were Carazee!!!! but oh they were good too. From July 25, 1987 to March 11, 1994 I had four babies....When Kam was born I had FOUR kids six years old and under...whew...wonder how we did it now...don't we? I remember singing the theme song to Fievel..Somewhere Out There...and rocking...rocking...Three are out and Kam is now the last one here...I am doing my utmost best to make the most of it...to be there....to cherish the time with him...my baby...bwah...turing 18 in less than a month...where did the days, months, years go...I guess I will say...I am anticipating Grandmama days...and pray to God we will live close to our kids...Hugs to you Suzanne. Thanks for a beautiful - teary post. I hear ya girl...Part of us is happy for them to be so close to trying their wings, and part of us is s*a*d....wanting to hang on just a few more moments....linger...oh my...xoxo
This almost makes me want to cry...I think about the past constantly and how my kids are getting so big, so quickly. My son just turned eleven, and, really, it seems like just yesterday that he was about five. Before I know it, he'll be leaving me to go off to college...I can barely think about it. My daughter constantly begs and begs me for a baby sister and sometimes I want to give in to her wish so badly, to have just one more chance to do it all over again, but I feel like I'm getting to old. Yes, I'd gladly shave more than a few years off and do it all over again...I'd do a lot of things differently too.
xoxo
Suzanne, you gorgeous girl. What a thoughtful mama your sweet daughter has. Hmm, I'd like to be transported back to the early 1970s when life was so simple and carefree. J x
I smiled all the way through your post :)
I'd like to go back and just watch us doing everyday things.... and hear the way they spoke then and to hear again the funny things they said....time spent walking to school, reading bedtime stories, colouring, playing with lego, so many hours spent together
thank you for your visit and sweet comment
Karenx
Thanks Suzanne for jumpstarting the memories thing. I'd go back to when I was four or five and would get up in the summer and go across our narrow street and sit on our neighbor's front step in the sun. Sit there and soak it all in and warm up and just BE. No cares or problelms (my parents still handled those).Just a little girl who had the whole day ahead to do what she wanted! I realize now that wasn't leisure time, that was learning time. Learning to be me, becoming me by storing up those memories that no one can take away!
Girl, you know me and know that I crave to keep my Jemma little forever. She is only six and I just catch myself breathing her in when I can. I would go back and try to help my mom battle her addiction to alcohol more than be a stupid girl and be mad at her. I would also go back and try to start having babies earlier so I could have had a few more. I would go back and be with Jemma as a baby every day if I could. I just cherish those memories. Have I ever told you the promise Tom and I made the night she was born? We promised in the room with her laying in my arms that we would never ever say, " I can't wait for her to..." I knew that those moments would come so fast and I didn't want to miss any of them while wishing for something to come. We have never said it and I am so glad. I have really tried to live in the moment and cherish each day with my sweet girl. Oh my... you always get me with your posts!
Oh I would definitely go back back to young motherhood. I loved every second of it. Yes,
the neck nuzzling was my favorite : )
and the 'watching when they didn't know I was' when they would give a sibling a helping hand or a loving hug.
Just tonight, I went to my now 27 year old daughter's facebook page where she has posted a photo of her and her thirty year old brother giving each other a big hug. Made me smile, made me remember! made me wish...
Thank you Suzanne for all of your amazing posts that leave me thankful that I call you friend.
hugs from me...
Oh I love this post. That fox in the first image just grabs you in an unexpected way and makes you CHUCKLE!!
TO answer your question in your sweet comment....my ingredient for getting so many things off the ground in a week?
MADNESS!!!!
In a good way. :)
CAN'T WAIT FOR JULY MADNESS CHEZ MOI with you.
Anita
To turn back the clock and go back, wishing at times, your children may have chosen a different path; yet those decisions were theirs to make. We can't hold their lives at three forever ( I wish though!)
xoxo
Karena
Art by Karena
I would turn the clock back a bit -- to when Rick and I were younger together and his boys smaller, when we were all together and not so spread out, when we could introduce all the new, when Stimpy was still with us and Gypsy younger and me healthier. But those times remain memories to savor, and savor, I do.
Just beautiful. I definitely would. i would go back to when my almost 14 year old daughter was born. I would take my time, not worry so much about the little things and just enjoy her big brown eyes. I wouldn't work so hard and instead just be with her. I surround myself with memories hoping to catch one as I pass by.
xoxo
Suzanne....I LOVE THIS post possibly more than any other! I would give just about anything to click my heels and go back in time, to when my kids were around 10,8 and 2. In a heartbeat. I found a bunch of our old home movies (since transfered to dvd's) and literally couldn't watch some of them becuase I was so overwhelmed with emotion and I had people working in the house and well...you know I didnt' want to look like a nut job sobbing like a baby. Its bad enough those darn Johnson and Johnson commercials and Disney clips get me every time...but seeing dvd's of my kids young, makes me melt into a puddle of tears. Many of my most favorite and cherished memories were from when they were young and I was so needed. Even those whiny cries and grubby dirty hands wiping at my clean pants sounds good!!
Thanks for a fun walk down memory lane.....very sweet!
I would SO do it again...I would cherish those days. You don't understand what people mean when they say the time goes so fast...until you have your own, almost grown.
I don't know who said it, but this quote is a good one~
The days are LONG, but the years are SHORT!
yes I would
much like you I often think if I could have a day..an hour
to have each of them as babies.
I remember as a young mama rushing it..wishing they would do this or that milestone
only to wake up today at 43 astonished that that many years have gone by..never to be touched again.
so yes...I would
thinking of you..hoping your weekend was good:)
xo
Oh, how this post made me smile. I too woke my daughter every morning with a cheery "good morning sunshine" and would receive that same sleepy eyed smile. I loved each and every stage of her childhood, but as a new grandmother of a 4 month old, I wouldn't change a thing...so amazing to watch your own daughter as a mother...
Awww - sweet. Now pass the tissues as I really need one. Just back from watching my 'baby' compete in collegiate swimming championships and thought many times where has the time flown by to...
xo Cathy
What a sweet post! I caught the smell of baby lotion yesterday, and it made me miss having a newborn & smelling that wonderful, intoxicating smell that newborns have. Nostalgia is a tricky thing though, and that's why I love it so much. Like you've said, it makes you forget the bad & savor the good.
Have a wonderful week!
Keri
Suzanne, dear, I am misty eyed...what a beautiful, bittersweet, heartwarming post. Love all of your images. That was such a sweet time, but we try to cuddle and be silly as much as possible even now. Watching the home movies together is so special, and I hope that keeps my daughter in a state of love for herself as we enter the teen years.
You are a very talented artist of life! Thank you :))
Sending hugs out West ;)
- Irina
Suzanne,
I feel like you're a mind reader! I was thinking just today (on my yoga mat) how much I loved the time when Carter was my only little one and he was 2. Easy, breezy, playing at the park. Such sweet days. A blessing of a time for me. Things are so much busier, crazier, demanding now. But, as I read this...it serves as such a great reminder to say yes to the 2nd bedtime story, the extra cuddle, the game, the chat....b/c I will blink and my boys will have better things to do.
Hugs to you!
xoxo Elizabeth
Oh, I miss those days so, so much...I only pray they remember them with the sweet memories that I do...sweet post!
Rene
Oh Suzanne you have a way with words that warms the heart so.
I love this thoughtful tender post, and your photos are so sweet. I would go back to the days when my kids were young and every day was an adventure with them.
I still even dream of my oldest son when he was a young boy and I could just reach out and touch him, its so real.
Loved the days of their childhood, carefree, playful, I love you so much, moments.
Thanks for bringing back sweet and precious memories!
Love to you!
Deborah xoxoxoox
So many sweet memories of when the girls were little ... but storytime and watching movies together were always fun. And our summer together in Europe ... living in a tent.
Suzanne, the picture of you and your camera and neice ... stunning.You are so lovely.
Fondly,
Glenda
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