Inconvenience may simply be an invitation to slow down.

That baby, the one who "bathed" herself in the sink tonight while I cooked dinner, the one who is growing up right before my eyes.  That baby whose hair is starting to curl and whose nose has a sprinkling of freckles already.  That baby will be asking me for mascara before I even have a chance to learn how to apply it right myself. That baby has my  heart, even if she is rather stingy with her kisses for Momma.

Tonight after dinner she was inexplicably fussy.  I had groceries to get, dinner to clean up and school work to finish with the boys.  There was so much to do and a cranky baby wasn't making my to-do list anymore doable.  So I did what any good mom with half a brain would do; I rushed through her second bath, got her jammies on in haste and briefly contemplated just giving her the toothbrush in her crib to push the whole process along.  Somewhere between the diaper, smeared toothpaste and nigh-night kiss something inside me whispered, "Just hold her."\

In my hurry and completely out of character, I listened to that whisper. 

I lifted her back out of her crib, we turned on her music and rocked in the warm glow of her night light stars.  I "softed" her nose with her puppy and she tried to pick mine.  We talked about the "preey stars" on her ceiling and we snuggled.  For ten whole, uninterrupted minutes together we let the cares of our world fade away, because in that moment the cares weren't there.  The only thing that mattered was the snuggle.

  

That was one more snuggle I would have missed if I would have put "tuck baby in" on my to-do list.  If I would have treated her fussiness as just one more thing to endure, and get through, well then I would have missed the moment.  My to-do list was the inconvenience NOT the baby.  That baby was the blessing. That "hard stuff"? Her fussiness?  Well that was just her invitation for me to slow down.

Isn't that the truth?!  Sometimes I do have to buckle down and power through the hard stuff.  But sometimes, the best way to get through the hurt and hurry is to take a deep breath, reassess and regain the calm.  And what better way to slow down than with a snuggle.   

PS.  I am just taking this baby and the two other ducks to the grocery store tomorrow... it will get done.  Eventually.