Seizing the Moments

Yesterday, I woke the big girls up early and dropped them off for their 8:00am horseback riding lessons before the summer sun began blazing down relentlessly.  Since DW was at home, I was able to leave Emily at home.  When I left, DW was in his office and Emily was still sleeping.  When I returned, they were snuggled together on the couch watching cartoons - a sight that would warm any mommy's heart. Eventually, DW had to get back to work, so he gave Emily a kiss and got up.  She looked at me then and asked, "Will you come snuggle with me Mommy?"  We've had a busy week and will be having an even busier weekend, so my head was spinning with all the things that needed to be done - laundry, dishes, grocery lists, tidying up the house, errands to run, etc.  I knew I had only about an hour while the big girls were away and Emily would be happily occupied by the T.V.  I had so much to do, but, those blue eyes were looking up at me and there was a big smile on that freckled, round little face and I realized it was a moment that I would regret if I let it pass.  Next week, that sweet little girl will turn 5 and in a couple more weeks she will start kindergarten.  It won't be long before she is too cool and/or too busy with her own life to snuggle with me.  This is a fact I know all too well.  So, I decided the laundry and dishes could wait.  I could do the grocery list and the tidying up later.  At that moment, the only thing I really needed  to do was snuggle.

I know that moments like those are fleeting and, when we are given the chance, we have to seize those moments and hold on as tight as we can.  I sat with my "baby" for the next 30 minutes and we snuggled.  We watched Little Bill and we giggled.  She held her blankie and I held her.  When she is a mommy, she probably won't remember how much laundry I washed and she probably won't care how clean the house was.  But she will remember moments like those - moments when we just snuggled - and, hopefully, she will know that sometimes snuggling more important than anything else.