I can remember when you fit in the palm of my hand
Felt so good in it, no bigger than a minute
How it amazes me, you’re changing with every blink
Faster than a flower blooms they grow up all too soon

So let them be little ’cause they’re only that way for a while
Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day
Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle
Oh just let them be little

I’ve never felt so much in one little tender touch
I live for those kisses, prayers and your wishes
Now that you’re teaching me things only a child can see
Every night while we’re on our knees all I ask is please

Let them be little ’cause they’re only that way for a while
Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day
Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle
Oh just let them be little

So innocent, a precious soul, you turn around
It’s time to let them go

So let them be little ’cause they’re only that way for a while
Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day
Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle
Oh just let them be little

Let them be little

It seems like yesterday I was feeling their tiny kicks from inside my stomach, trying to imagine what my life would look like once these children entered my world. It feels like I blinked and the 7 pound cherubs I cradled in my arms became 31 pound toddlers who now ask to hold me. Every day I look at my boys and it seems they have gotten bigger. Each day there’s a new discovery, a new word, a new perspective. Luke is close to walking and my big babies don’t look like babies anymore. The tiny angels I used to hold in each hand now take up over half my body. I’m having a harder time holding them all in my arms, and Luke already seems too busy to snuggle most of the time. They’re brains are expanding and the world is becoming more real to them. As they continue to gain a tighter grip on the world, my grip on them will have to loosen.

These days are filled with diapers, messes, spills, falls, boo boos and “whoopsy’s.” Sometimes I growl at the 17th spill or the grass clumps that got tracked in on the bottoms of their feet. Sometimes I’m tired and I don’t want to hold everyone all at once and I get frustrated with the seemingly constant demands for milk refills, missing blankets and channel surfing for the 100th viewing of the same Peppa Pig episode. Some nights I want to rush bedtime along and skip the story so that I can have 5 minutes to myself. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by being one mom meeting all the demands of 3 small people.

But in the same instant, I look into their beautiful, innocent eyes and I remember. This day will never come again. Every moment they are a little older, a little closer to not needing me anymore, a little further away from these baby days. Soon they will start school, they will have girlfriends, sports will take up their free time, and they won’t want to spend all their moments with their mommy. The dirt clods will get bigger from football cleats and they won’t seem so innocent anymore. Before I know it they won’t willingly wrap themselves around me and say, “Mommy, I yub you” or “I missed you” even if I’ve only been away for a few minutes. Although in many ways I know the best is yet to come, and every age is wonderful in its own right, my heart will yearn for these times again.

As much as I look forward to the years to come and the men they will become, I want to hold onto these days while I still have them. Each day is a gift. A fleeting, constantly changing gift. An opportunity to learn and grow with them. So much focus is placed on growing up and teaching our children to be adults, and while that is necessary and a major part of parenting, I feel a pull toward enjoying their short-lived youth, and teaching them to do the same. I have never heard a parent look back on the younger years and say, “I wish I had spent less time with them. I wish I had snuggled them less, held them less, kissed them less. I wish I had read less bedtime stories and that they had grown up faster.” I have never heard anyone remain frustrated about the constant spills and messes of these days or regret not putting them in time out more often. But I have heard many regrets about the opposite.

It gets wild and crazy, occasionally we are all melting down together, and everything doesn’t always go perfectly. They watch too much tv some days because, let’s face it. this parenting gig is exhausting at times and there are moments where I feel Dora is teaching more than I could anyway. But all in all, I get over myself and realize I will never get this time back. The foundation is being laid now for the rest of their lives and if I don’t invest myself into them while they are small, they won’t want me investing in them later. The time is now. While they are still little. Parenting is a daily sacrifice to lay your life down for your children. A daily choice to put their needs and best interests above your own. Every moment matters! That sounds like a lot of pressure, and it is; but it’s what parenting is all about.

I don’t always feel like I’m giving my boys the best I have to give and sometimes there just simply isn’t enough of me to go around. But these days are whizzing by and I want to hold on while I can. I want to let them be little and make messes, and mistakes and fall down. I want to learn from their freedom and make messes and mistakes and fall down with them, and then learn to get back up and clean ourselves off together. So let them be little, ’cause they’re only that way for a while!

“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.”