The Last Time

During the course of our lifetimes, we have many firsts. First friend, first love, first kiss... And when you have a baby, you experience a new first almost daily. You'll always remember the first time your baby smiled at you. Or the first time you fed him baby food, or her first word. You remember the first time you saw him, and her first steps. We remember all of these firsts - they are burned in to our memories, locked away somewhere special where we can always find them when we need to.

But what about lasts? Do you remember the last time you spent time with your best friend? The last time you kissed your first love? Do you remember the last time you fed your baby a bottle? Or the last time you changed his diaper before he was potty trained? What about the last time she let you rock her to sleep? Or hold her while she dreamt? I can't. And I'm so thankful. 

I think it was designed that way. Designed so that we wouldn't know it would be the last time while it was happening. How painful would it be feeding your baby a bottle knowing that it would be the last before sippy cups took over? How sad would it be to carry your sleeping baby in from the car knowing that by the time it happened again they would be too big to carry? We go through our lives every day just doing what needs to be done. We change diapers and don't think twice about it. We help our little ones put on their shoes because they haven't yet mastered it themselves. We push them on the swing because they can't do it alone yet. But one of these days, they will be potty trained. They will get themselves dressed each morning, and probably argue about it along the way. They will swing themselves. And, thankfully, we will not have to play back the last time we helped them with each of these tasks. 

That way, we are left with the sweet memories that they are.