What Can I Say That Hasn't Already Been Said?

Two years ago O was born and while I was told many, many things about motherhood before her birth it was actually what my own mother told me that has rung most true. 

On the day that O was born she told me "Congratulations. You'll never have a worry-free day again."  

Newborn O practicing some of her finest yoga poses

While that may sound like one of the worst things that you can say to a new mother, I've actually found that it was one of the most honest (refreshingly honest in fact).  

Superbaby!

I remember waking my husband up in the middle of the night when O was just a week old and asking him what we were going to do when she enters middle school. He looked at me like I was a crazy woman as I explained that middle schools usually get out fairly early and I was worried about O getting into trouble after school if we were both still at work. Not surprisingly, he continued looked at me like I was a crazy woman. And it was then that I realized that my mom was right. I would worry about O for the rest of my life, beyond the toddler days when she's constantly falling and running into things, beyond the school days when the idea of someone picking on her makes me want to scream, and beyond the time when she'll live under our roof.

And yet the paradox of it all is that despite the on-going worry about her safety and her well-being (and the new gray hairs that accompany that worry) I cannot forget what it took to get us to this place and I cannot forget how fortunate we are to have a little one to worry about.

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone