The Grass Is Always Greener

Right after Sam was born, a friend was over visiting with her baby who was 4 or 5 months at the time. I was sleep deprived and sore from nursing, my newborn was fussy and I was covered in a combination of breast milk and spit up from a baby with reflux (so a lot of spit up).

I remember looking at my friend's baby thinking, "I cannot wait until Sam is that big so he can be content and hold up his head and sit on my lap like a little angel."

Today, I was sitting on the couch with another friend and her newborn. The baby was nursing so sweetly and then stared up at her mom with such loving eyes and newborn cooes. My son was rolling around in my lap, squirming because he wanted to be anywhere but where he was, and had snot and drool simultaneously rolling down his face and onto my sweatshirt.

I looked at the tiny baby and thought, "oh how I miss the tiny baby days when Sam snuggled and cooed and could spend all day sleeping in my arms."

Why does the grass always look greener on the other side of parenting?

It's so easy to get caught up in what is not, the past or the future, the tiny newborn with the newborn smell or that older child who can get their own breakfast and let you you hit snooze one more time.

Stop! This is what I'm telling myself right now. Stop doing this!

The moment that we're in -- the moment I am in right now is the sweetest moment of them all. It is the moment we were made for.

At this moment Sam is getting two teeth, is "talking" our ears off, has figured out how to jump, and is determined to stick the cat's tail in his mouth. Tonight while I was putting him to sleep he burped in my face, gave me a huge sloppy kiss, and feel asleep on my shoulder, right in the crook of my neck. Oh that boy, we were meant to be together -- this moment, past moments, and every single moment to come.

I'd love to know: Have you ever experienced this? When the desire to compare creeps in, how do you keep grounded in the moment?