Let Me Hold You Longer...

Etsy:  Sarah Jane Studios

This past weekend I went to a baby shower where the host read "Let Me Hold You Longer", a sweet book about encouraging parents to savor not only their children's "firsts", but the "lasts" as well.  It was incredibly moving.  With Lucy I feel like I'm gripping to her "lasts" like a mad-woman;  Her last feeding in the middle of the night, her last 1 diaper, her last bottle I hold (before her tiny hands pry it away from me), etc.

In my attention to Lucy, I realized a "last" for Jay had happened right under my nose.  

My friend Shannon had warned me about it.  Like Jay, her boys love to read and she was telling me one day months ago how strange and bittersweet it is when they start reading in their heads...another step closer to their world and yours separating.  Since then I have asked him several times..."Can you read in your head?"...His reply, "No.  I can't do that."

Jay had early release on Wednesday.  He and I LOVE these days...it is just the two of us for a few precious hours before we have to get the girls.  Sweet one-on-one time with my little.  Before we ate lunch together, I was finishing up some work while he did his homework and the house was SO quiet.  Without all the other distractions, I noticed that I was missing a little voice coming from Jay's room.

I spun around...my eyes open wide.  I burst in his room.  "Are you reading in your head?!"...He replies like it is no big deal...like it has been happening for quite some time..."Yes.  I can do that now."

In a house with loads of commotion a "last" happened for my first born...and, as it is so easy to do with the "lasts", I missed it.