Since becoming a mother, I’ve been thinking a lot about moments. You hear so many things before you have a child. Everyone tells you how tough it is, and how stages seem like eternities when the baby won’t sleep, or wants to eat all night, or won’t nap long enough for you to even take a shower. People make it sound like a hell that has no end. And then you hear all the mentions of how they grow up way too fast, and it’s gone in the blink of an eye.

In my short 7 months of experience, one of my favorite sayings rings true, and it encompasses both sentiments: the days are long, but the years are short.

Man. The number of times I’ve repeated that to myself since becoming a mother this past March. The number of times that’s crossed my mind each day.

I’m living for the moments. The only way for me to feel like time is slowing down a little bit is to find those moments. You know the ones. Where you’re wrapped up in what you’re doing, and you feel the joy of that exact minute, and you try and hold onto it just a little bit longer. Every day, I look for those moments. By doing that, I’m feeling like I have a little more control over the speed with which my little lady is growing up. So much happens this first year, your baby is a different baby from one month to the next – and sometimes even from one week to the next.

Yesterday, I took an extra 2 minutes to take some video of my daughter eating her rice cereal before bedtime. I will want to remember that one day. I took an extra 5 minutes to kiss and cuddle her while she was on the changing table. I kissed her like crazy until she was caught up in a fit of giggles, and my heart expanded so much from the joy of that sound that I wasn’t sure it’d be able to stay in my chest. Those moments bring tears to my eyes. And I’m trying to find them and desperately hold on to them before they pass. I kept her up 10 minutes later than she probably wanted to be. But those 10 minutes were worth it.Having these moments, they allow the tougher ones to pass with less fanfare. As a new mom, you have so many “when will this end?!!” moments. But finding the tiny little minutes to just drink in this baby – who won’t be a baby soon, who won’t smell like her baby self, who won’t curl up perfectly in my arms with her head on my shoulder – are helping to put the tougher moments in perspective.

She’s so little. And she won’t be for long. I need these memories seared in my brain because yes, the days are long….but wow, the years are so, so short.

It won’t be like this for long, One day soon that little girl is gonna be
All grown up and gone
Yeah this phase is gonna fly by, He’s trying to hold on
It won’t be like this for long.