Savor that moment

I wake up before the rest of the kids, but soon I hear a couple of them playing in their rooms. Then I am descended upon by 2 little boys. They deftly hop up onto my bed and assume the same position I am in, lying on my stomach, up on my elbows reading emails. Charlie has a book and says, "I read this to you." Ben is right next to him grinning from ear to ear. Charlie begins to say the 2 words that are printed on each page, "1 Elephant" and Ben is pointing to the animals and helping him count them, and has this huge smile on and says, "He is reading! He can read!" And the two of them continue throughout the whole 10 page board book this way, Charlie "reading" and Ben helping him count all of the animals. They are so proud of themselves that when the story ends they just giggle and laugh and tackle each other on my bed. I am torn the entire time between getting this whole scene on video or just enjoying the moment. But this big part of me wants to enjoy the moment again and again, so I want it on video. The moment has passed, but I grab my phone anyway and begin to record their laughter and their silliness. Their big sister comes in the room and I get her sleepy face on camera. That sleepy face that later will be twisted into concentration at school, and sullen in a moment of sadness over her brother reprimanding her, and grinning when I tell her we are having a dinner she enjoys. By the time the big boys begin to stir in their rooms we are in full swing "go" mode and I am giving my morning orders, "Lets go, get up, get dressed, brush your teeth, meet me downstairs for breakfast and making lunches." Someone can't find a shirt, someone else can't find their toothbrush. Someone doesn't feel like eating breakfast, and someone "likes my hair this way." Within an hour we are rushing out the door to make it to school just in time to beat the bell. And as I drop the oldest 3 off, and am left with just my youngest 2, I look in the rear view mirror as we sit in the school parking lot, and remember when this was my oldest 2 in their car seats, with the whole day ahead to decide what to do and where to go. And I think I physically can see time going by so so fast. I want to hold onto these morning moments where I am read a book by a 2 yr old. I want to hear that laughter of 2 brothers wrestling on my bed forever. But I know that they will some day not too far away be the ones walking into school every day, and then it will be just me and my car left in the school parking lot. So, to make the moments go a bit more slowly and to make them count, today we made s'mores in the backyard with our cousins in the middle of the day, and tomorrow, well tomorrow maybe we will just make them again, because I didn't get it on video ; ) Also I don't want to forget: -a pencil popped up out of my toaster today along with my English Muffin. Crazy thing is, I was not phased. Crazy is becoming my norm.