When I first met my friend Margaret, I was about 12 weeks pregnant with my oldest child, and she was about 12 weeks away from becoming pregnant with her oldest child. 🙂 Twelve years and three concurrent pregnancies later (I outdid her with #4!), we are both entering a very different phase of life. She wrote a beautiful blog post the other day about those bittersweet milestones that catch us off-guard, and graciously gave me permission to re-post it here. Thanks Margaret!
Nostalgia can hit unexpectedly at any time. Today I had a “moment” when I decided to scrub our particularly disgusting bathroom. I don’t want to admit how long it had been since the last scrub. Let’s just say it took me twice as long as usual to return it to any semblance of sparkle.
After working on the counter and the shower with some elbow grease, I moved on to the tub. That’s when I made my disturbing discovery. The plastic toys that lived in the tub waiting for a playmate were covered with a thin film of the floaty stuff.
Floaty stuff on the bathtub toys means that none of my kids have taken a bath in quite a while. No bath means showers are being taken. Showers mean older kids are taking them. I had a moment of silence.
Probably a whole minute later, I rinsed the toys, threw away a few older ones, bagged the rest, and placed them under the sink. Then I washed the porcelain and stepped back to observe my work. It was beautiful, shiny, sophisticated with Italian tile framing it on four sides. Three forgotten candles on elegant stands decorated the far corner. It finally looked like the sanctuary it was meant to be. I couldn’t stand the sight of it.
I always tell my kids that I’m going to put a brick on their heads if they grow too fast. Maybe I should add that they’re not allowed to be too old to play with their toys in the tub! Yadda yadda yadda. They’re still growing and one day will rediscover a more adult bath with a few salts, no doubt.
No one else has noticed yet. I don’t know what the kids’ attitudes will be. Maybe the youngest will beg me to get the toys back out! Until then, I will wax nostalgic, even about a particularly gleaming, but lonely piece of porcelain.
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