Mabel Molanphy

I seem to be run­ning into this phrase more and more late­ly, when it comes to being a par­ent. How the things that seem lenthty in rou­tine or ener­gy seem to sud­den­ly be gone, with­out a moment of warn­ing. It leaves the said-par­ent a lit­tle sad that those moments are gone, with­out a chance to say good-bye. Near­ly three weeks ago, dur­ing a Sacra­ment meet­ing at Church, just Mabel and I were in atten­dance. She was quite fatigued and want­ed me to hold her. It’s not uncom­mon for her to sit on my lap dur­ing church, with a firm grip on her dol­lie and two fin­gers in her mouth. But, this par­tic­u­lar day, she want­ed me to rock her, as I have each night since the day she was born. This con­tin­ued for near­ly the full hour of Sacra­ment meet­ing. Dur­ing her nap, I relayed the sto­ry to David, with the added note, “I nev­er know when she’ll be all done with me rock­ing her.” It was that night. Dur­ing her night-rou­tine, she sud­den­ly declared that she want­ed to sit in her “lit­tle chair” while mama sat in the rock­ing chair (by myself). It’s con­tin­ued each nap and nigh­t­ime rou­tine since. I miss rock­ing that lit­tle girl, but i am so grate­ful I had that last moment.

My dear sweet Mabel has been a great sleep­er for us (not with­out try­ing!) and sleeps so peace­ful­ly and sound­ly in her crib. David has always want­ed to sneak into her room to peek at her, but con­se­quent­ly ends up wak­ing her up some­times. Near­ly a week ago (last Sat­ur­day), David was able to sneak in there and see her, but fotu­nate­ly also video her sweet self just as I know she sleeps (fin­gers in the mouth and a firm clasp on dol­lie). Again, it was the last. That was the last nap she took in her crib. The very next day, she climbed out of her crib, again. As I took pic­tures (and cried) of yet anoth­er loss of rou­tine new growth oppor­tu­ni­ty for Mabel, I was so grate­ful that David had the last video of her sleep­ing so peace­ful­ly in that crib.

I miss my baby girl and it’s hard to see that she is grow­ing up. And yet, I’ve been here every sin­gle moment of it. I am so grate­ful for the sac­ri­fices and deci­sions that David and I have made for me to raise our daugh­ter full-time. These moments are gone, but the mem­o­ries are dear to me. And thank good­ness for iPhones to cap­ture them. 😉