Don't Blink

The house is so very peaceful.

I quietly walk by and see Eric fast asleep. He looks so content. What’s that saying, “Let sleeping babies lie.”

So I let him sleep.

Ahh.....It seems like only yesterday I took him home from the hospital.

All those endless nights of crying...

All those bedtime stories...

All those precious moments spent with my "Bud".

 My memory wanders to all the times he hung out with me, thought I was pretty cool, and never was embarrassed I was his mom.

Through the years we've been through a lot; after school sports, last minute science projects, and impromptu Halloween costumes...yup, those years certainly were special.

Time went by faster than I realized and before I knew it high school graduation had arrived.

Wow.  Eric's 18.  When did that happen?

As fast as it took you to read this blog, is as fast as it seemed. And now my "little guy" is a freshman at Marist College and I couldn't be more proud of the man he is becoming.

As I pick up his sweatshirt off the floor, the empty pizza box and the xbox controller, I trip over his laptop and just about land on top of the clock...

...it's one o'clock!

WHAT?

In the AFTERNOON?

...and he's sleeping?

As I contemplate flipping him off the couch on to the floor, nagging him to unload the dishwasher or at the very least straighten up his room, I remember going to bed last night at midnight and he was still up studying for his final in statistics.  He's a good kid, and I'm proud he's my son.

I grab the blanket and cover him up and give him a light kiss on his forehead.

In the background, the radio's playing a country song by Kenny Chesney.  I start to well up as I listen to the lyrics:

Don't blink
Just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and you
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did...

Don't blink

...Cause when your hourglass runs out of sand
You can't flip it over and start again
Take every breath God gives you for what it's worth...

Enjoy the fingerprints on the wall, the dirty clothes left on the floor, the house full of screaming kids...

It all goes by so fast.  Don't wish for tomorrow because it'll be here faster than you know it.

Take a breath and enjoy today.

 I love you, Eric.