A Perfect Moment

So, there's this song that was popular a few years back. Actually, it was most popular around the time Jesse and I got married and we danced to it at our wedding. Its by Steven Curtis Chapman...here are the lyrics, for those of you who aren't familiar with it...and then I'll get back to my point.

I'll take care of you
Don't be sad, don't be blue
I'll never break your heart in two
I'll take care of you
I'll kiss your tears away
I'll end your lonely days
All that I'm really tryin' to say
Is I'll take care of you

I want you to know that I love you so
I'm proud to tell the world you're mine
I said it before, I'll say it once more
You'll be in my heart 'til the end of time

I'll take care of you
Don't be sad, don't be blue
Just count on me your whole life through
'Cause I'll take care of you


For some reason, I knew even when Jesse and I picked it for our wedding that someday, I would end up singing it to our children. So it seemed inevitable that when Drew would be restless during my pregnancy I would find myself putting my hands on my stomach and singing these words to him. Before he was even born, I would rock in the glider in his nursery and sing it softly. After he was born, I would often hum it or sing to him late at night as I was feeding him. Even up until yesterday, he would pull me over to the glider, now banished from his big boy room and sitting by a living room window, climb up in my lap and snuggle, asking me to sing to him.

Yesterday, that changed though. I watch every day as the signs of my once chunky, little, baby fade away. Feeling that loss, I pulled him into my lap while I was rocking and began to sing those sweet words again. Instead of snuggling though, I got a gentle push as he pulled away, "Stop singing Mom...I need to get down and go read," this miniature man said to me. I looked at his long legs and serious face and wondered if that meant that he didn't want to rock just now, or if he'd outgrown this ritual along with all the other infantile things he's so eager to cast aside.

Today, I still haven't been able to get it out of my mind. As I was eating dinner though, Drew climbed up next to me. I smiled and then went to take a bite when I heard his little voice start to sing, "I'll take cawre of you, don't be sad...Mommy? Sing the wrest to me, please." Of course I did and a little pause on my part between each phrase, awarded me with his sweet voice singing along, a couple of words behind. At the end, he looked up at me and smiled, "That's a gwreat song Mom!" he said. Moments later he was racing around the house, playing some hybrid of dinosaurs and monster trucks, no sign of the sweet baby in sight. That's ok though, that moment was perfect. I just have to remind myself, the sweet baby has grown up but he left behind a precious, if precocious, little man.