Note from Nicole ~ The Lasts

A lot of times, I feel like our youngest son gets the short straw. He didn't get a huge first birthday party (our first had TWO bashes), most of his clothes are hand-me-downs from his brother, and many times he is the tag-along kid while we shuttle my eight-year-old places. We have yet to start his baby book (he is almost six - should I just give up on that hope?). On top of all that, his "firsts," while they are important, don't ever seem such a big deal and they weren't all photographed/videoed like our oldest's were.

I have a lot of mom guilt over this. I mean, just reading that makes me sound horrible, doesn't it? Lucky for me, my sister swooped in this week and saved me from drowning myself in this underserved, self-inflicted mom guilt.

Our youngest is our second child, and also our last. What my sister told me gave me an entirely new outlook on this guilt I carry. The lasts are just as important as the firsts. Yes, maybe we didn't celebrate Alex's first birthday as grandly as we celebrated Nick's, and maybe his clothes are all hand-me-downs. But he will be the last of our babies to wear those clothes; the last of our babies to celebrate the first birthday; the last of my babies that I will be able to carry into a store when he falls asleep in the car. He was the last of our babies to sit in the stroller that had been in our family for eight years and the last to waddle around in a diaper.

So just as I celebrated the firsts in my kids' lives, I am going to celebrate the last and make a promise to myself to enjoy everything while I can. (Except the tantrums and talking back and door slamming.) Each first and last means my kids are growing as they should be. They're getting older and bigger and smarter. But while I still can, you can bet I'll be tucking them in at night however they want me to, carrying them until they're too heavy, and asking for goodbye kisses each time we part. I might not want the Lasts the come, but I will do my best to celebrate them when they do.

Have a great weekend, all.

xoxo,

Nicole

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