I love this... kind of sums up why I am so excited to be a mom.
Seems Like Yesterday
Seems like yesterday...
The pains started.
I grabbed my bulging belly
And danced with your Papa
Shouting "It's time! It's time!
Seems like Yesterday...
You made your debut
Red-faced and screeching.
Your cries changed to coos as I held you.
My tears changed to oohs as you held me
Spellbound with your magical, wiggly humaness.
Yesterday we were one.
Today we were two.
Seems like yesterday...
Your middle-of-the-night colicky cries.
We went on our familiar walk
Down the stairs,
Through the living room,
The dining room,
The kitchen,
Into the pantry,
With made-up songs
Of soups and stews, pots and pans,
And back again.
Over and over.
Ten, twenty, a hundred times,
Until your cries were silenced.
Your breathing calmed.
Seems like yesterday...
Your first splashy sink bath.
Your first mushy meal.
Your first wobbly walk.
Your first wide-eyed word-
"Mama."
Seems like yesterday...
Your first birthday
Dressed in a diaper and frosting.
I helped you tear off wrapping paper,
Made your new teddy dance.
You threw down teddy
And had a party with the paper.
Seems like yesterday...
You were a bumblebee
At the dance recital.
The other bees buzzed
And floated and flitted onstage.
You stood frozen
Staring at the audience
Not moving a nuscle
'Til the bow.
The how you bowed and bowed and bowed
And I clapped and clapped and clapped
'Til a man three rows back asked me to stop.
Seems like yesterday...
Your first day of school.
We played jumprope in the driveway
'Til the school bus came
And swallowed you up.
I wore the jumprope as a necklace
All morning long,
Through my chores,
Through my tears,
'Til you returned with kisses,
Smiles and stories
Of what a grand place
Kindergarten was.
Seems like yesterday...
You wiggled out your first tooth.
Got your first hi in T-ball.
Slept overnight at a friend's
For the very first time.
Seems like yesterday...
You won the spelling bee.
The school's.
The county's.
The state's.
We flew to Washington, D.C.
So giddy and giggly we ddin't need a plane.
We filled four days with memorials and monuments,
Memories for a lifetime.
It didn't matter that you mispelled "merganser"
In the first round.
Seems like yesterday...
You had your first date
And your first pimple
All on the same day.
I sat on the floor
Outside the locked bathroom door
'Til your tears stopped
And you let me make everything okay
Like Mamas are supposed to do.
Seems like yesterday...
Your got your drivers license.
Had your first fender-bender.
Went to your first prom.
Seems like yesterday...
When my own Mama died.
Everyone was kind,
Tried to say the right things.
Only you knew what to do.
You grabbed an armful
Of your Grammy's clothes-her nightgown, bathrobe, a dress.
We wrapped ourselves in her scent
And pored over old photos
Crying and laughing 'til dawn.
Seems like yesterday...
We drove you to college
Two states away.
The next day you called-collect,
And said you'd cried
For three hours after we'd left.
I understood. I criend for six.
Seems like yesterday...
You were my baby.
Now you're having your own baby.
Still, you will always be my baby.
Always.
Even when your baby's baby has a baby.
You will always be my baby.
And it will always seem like yesterday.
-Lynne Plourde