I found myself half asleep, having just been kissed by my husband who was leaving our hotel room to catch the shuttle for the airport, to fly to Georgia for six weeks of training for his new job. I laid in bed with Addy, keeping enough distance between us in the hopes of avoiding the next flying appendage that would inevitably make contact with my face. I was fading back into sleep, calculating a few more hours of rest before we headed home, when Keegan burst into tears in the bed next to me.
I slipped from under the covers, moving my pillow to create a barrier for my flailing daughter and moved to the next bed to comfort my little man. He was half awake, tears rolling down his cheek, perhaps knowing daddy just left, and in need of some snuggles. I rubbed his back and smoothed his hair, and then, the moment happened. He rolled to his side, laid his head on my arm, and snuggled into my chest with his back.
We were a perfect fit. Like the puzzle piece you find under the table, after hours of working a puzzle only to find you're missing that one last piece. His cries stopped, his breathing slowed, and all at once he slipped back into slumber. I was left with teary eyes, and a warmth in my heart. It was as if time stopped. I took it all in. I felt his little body breathing, I smelled his hair, and tried to memorize how his long eye lashes glowed red in the early morning light.
He still passes out kisses freely without embarrassment, and still professes his love to us multiple times a day. He still laughs at my funny faces, tells me I'm beautiful, and thinks I'm the bee's knees. He still needs hugs before bed, his daddy to play boy things, and mommy when he's sick or has a new ouchie.
Those moments will fade, he will become a strong and independent young man, one who couldn't possibly kiss his mother goodbye in front of his friends. I know this, and I will be incredibly proud of him. But today, just in that moment, he needed me. My little boy needed his mommy, and in that moment I gave him all of me, and it was blissfully perfect.
Perhaps that moment was so special because they don't happen nearly enough. With all of the craziness in our busy life as a family, I feel stretched to my limits, that I'm not really taking stock in the moments that matter. I need more of these moments, and I'm vowing here and now to slow down and really see them. Feel them. And hold them in my heart and mind forever.
