I couldn’t sleep last night. There was too much excitement knowing that our amazing nanny was back, after visiting family for 5 weeks in Indonesia. Five weeks with a 2 year old, a newborn, and a new business was more than I could (or wanted to) handle alone. I ended up traveling from my parents’ house, to the in-laws’, and everywhere in between for an extra hand. As I learned during my first maternity leave, moms need to accept help whenever it is offered. They didn’t need to ask me twice!
After 5 weeks of living out of a suitcase and in a mildly disorganized state, I was SO ready to get back to a routine. So after hugging my nanny and thanking her for coming back to us, I started the day drafting my To Do’s. It was a comprehensive list of all the things I wanted to accomplish today, yet fully accepting that only 1 or 2 tasks would be completed.
It’s now 5pm and as expected I’ve hardly made a dent in my To Dos. That’s OK because Sienna is quietly playing and Naomi is napping. A perfect time to get back to work.
As I started to type away, Sienna read books on the floor beside me. Something didn’t feel right. This seemed to be a great time to get work done, but was that what I really wanted to do?
Lately, I’ve had one too many older and wiser parents tell me how much they missed ‘this stage’ when their kids were kids. How the early years go by so quickly; before they knew it, their little ones were no longer little.
I put myself in their shoes, picturing my life 15 years from now. Eventually, my girls will choose to spend time with their friends instead of their mom. They will no longer beg me to cuddle with them before bed, and I will be wishing I could go back to when they were young. Back to today. To this very moment. And if I could go back, I would not choose my To Do list. Instead, I would get on the floor with Sienna and play.
So that’s exactly what I did. Because the work will always be there, but my little ones will only be little for so long.
