Hurry up

Quick, quick, hurry! Hurry up and run to town before Tate pees, poops, or needs to be fed. Hurry, hurry and get the laundry put away while Turner and Tate are sleeping. Take a quick second to check my email and file some receipts while I'm in here. So much time spent hurrying.
While my Turner was a baby there was so much time spent slowly. Slowly get up and have breakfast. Take our time and have a bath in the morning. Slowly get dressed. No rush to do anything much, just enjoy my boy.
Now it's different. Now I have to hurry to enjoy my boy. He's the blue streak that is zooming around. Poor Tate will have whip lash before her first birthday. I try to stop and slow it down. Take a second and make Turner hug me. Hold on to him a little too long. Squeeze him tight and breathe him in, little boy smell and all.
I am trying to sit and gaze into my baby girls eyes and see what kind of person is in there. I want to give her the same attention I gave her brother, but it's not possible. I guess this is why there's a difference between the oldest child and the baby of the family. Brad and I will unknowingly be more strict on Turner. We won't do it on purpose and it won't be in a mean way. It'll be how all first borns are raised-by parents who are new to every stage.
Then there'll be Tate. She'll be two and a half years younger. We'll know what stages are coming and want to treasure them because we'll have already seen it go by too fast with Turner. We won't want our baby to grow up, so we'll baby her. None of it is anything new. Brad and I are both the oldest and turned out pretty OK even with being our parents guinea pigs. On the other side of the equation are our siblings, who all are pretty OK too, birth order not with standing.
So I hurry to empty my thoughts. Hurry to grab my baby up and hold her. Hurry to peek into Turner's room and watch him sleep. Tomorrow I'll hurry to snap some pictures. I'll hurry to write all my kids smiles on my heart. I want to remember every day of my children's lives. Everyday that they are in mine is magic.