tonight

Dear self:

Ten years from now when your girls are sneaking out and speaking a language you don't understand; six months from now when you just can't handle one more second of being Mommy alone because your husband works to allow you to be home; one week from now when you're bone tired and sweaty from a long day at the zoo with a two and three year old; tomorrow night when they just won't go to sleep: please look back at tonight.

Tonight, when you laid in bed with your two babies to help them go to sleep. You rubbed your first's back until she drifted off. And your second looked up at you, smiling in the blue night-light light, and stroked your cheek. And you felt so overcome with love - for them and from them.

Please look back at tonight. Remember their faces, their soft baby skin, the smell of their breath and hair, and the way they want nothing more than to be near you. Remember how you cried thinking of how fast it's all slipping away. The monotony of day-to-day life, but already they speak in full paragraphs and second languages, and soon... will they even need you? Cherish it, momma. Please.

Remember tonight, laying in bed, and holding them both.