Last week, you found one of your baby toys–a stuffed frog that plays a lullaby–in your toy basket, and you clutched it all evening. You seemed very melancholy throughout the night, and at bedtime, I realized that you were sobbing quietly into your pillow. When I asked you what was wrong, you said, in a very small, sad voice, “Time goes by too fast.”
This is not the first time you have cried about time’s swift passage–and the process of growing older. A month earlier, when I was rubbing your back and singing “Hush Little Baby,” you also burst into tears and said the very same thing. When I tried to comfort you, you replied, “But time does go by too fast! I miss being a baby and having you sing me those songs.”
Oh, my boy, it seems we must certainly share one heart. Each day that I get with you is another that I’d like to freeze in time. And every so often, I look ahead, with bittersweet sorrow, to the days when you will be older, and I won’t be able to hold you close like this anymore.
You are right, sweet Emmett. Time does go by too fast. But for now, let me sing you another lullaby.
I love you,
Mama