Someday, they tell me, I’m going to miss waking up at all hours of the night for a sick kid or a crying baby.

Someday, they insist, I’m going to wish I heard a little voice at the top of the stairs asking mama for one more song even though they should be in bed.

Sometime in the future, I’m supposed to miss all of these things.  However, my brain is pretty fried, and I’m honestly afraid I’m going to forget the smaller things so they won’t even be in my mind to remember to miss.  So, future self, this list is for you: all the things you think you won’t miss but might, just might, someday. Cherish them. Heck, like this post if any of these things apply to you!  

Things like…

Finishing an entire grocery store trip before realizing I’ve been walking around with Finding Dory stickers on my butt the whole time.  And here I thought people were smiling at me because my kids were cute…

Getting everyone a super nutritious breakfast but forgetting my own, womp womp womp.

Driving for 45 extra minutes just because the child who DESPERATELY needed a nap actually fell asleep in the car, which they never do.  

Pretending to be charmed and not bored to near-death by my kid’s ballet showcase.

Trying to exercise and being swarmed by giggling children.

Having every question delve deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit of “but why” until I have to start laughing and say, “I don’t know, that’s just how it is.”

“Catch the lightning bug gently, don’t squish him, no, don’t pinch, but gently cup him, there you go.”

Ice cream cone dribbles in the warm summer evenings.

Ah son of a biscuit, now I’m just thinking of the things I’m actually going to cherish forever.  Turns out maybe there are those things floating around my mind after all.  Things like.

Baking banana bread with my daughter while the baby naps.

“Mama?”  “What?” “I love you.”    Pause a beat. “Mama?” “What?”  “I still love you.”

Because that’s the thing.  They can say how you’ll cherish the moments when it’s something awful like sleep deprivation, but I think they’re only saying that because that’s the topic of the conversation, and maybe what people really mean when they say that is that you’ll miss the smell of your kid’s head, the weight of them in your arms, the stinky sweet musk of them, tired and knobby kneed and muddy-elbowed and full of so much wonder, so many feelings (SO. MANY. FEELINGS) and so much limitless love.  

Cherish that.  That’s what I want people to say.  Forget the sleepless nights, the sticker butts.  They’re important, but they needn’t be cherished.  The love, the wonder, the ice cream chins — those are the things that should stick.