the summer of your back

addy,

three years ago, it was the summer of skinned knees for you.  i was pregnant with lane, we were in our stow house still, we spent so much time outside that summer, it was my last year nannying, so much nostalgia...

and you were constantly falling,  your chubby thighs, barely fitting into 18 month clothes.  you were constantly testing out your waddling turned to running skills.  you took most of the falls with grace, crying of course, but not letting them slow you down.

it seems time has slipped by again... it is hard for me to believe that was only three years ago when so much has come and go in between.  another house, two children welcomed, was it really only three years ago that it was just you and me baby girl?

now it seems i am only catching your back.  your blonde hair, rarely tamed, whipping behind you.  your legs are no longer skinned, instead they are carry bruises from the constant run ins your have with your environment.  these summers are slipping by, so quickly it seems.  your legs are starting to carry you away from me instead of to me, there is a wisdom in your eyes- rarely seen in one so young that has come from great grief.

we have been caught it seems.  you and i, in this great circle of summers together.  i know before too long, it won't even be your back i see chasing you around the playground.  it will be your shiny lips, caked in lip gloss you don't need, your too blonde hair with your too tan legs, it will be teenager addy, getting ready to go out with her friends, your summers won't belong to me.

and so for now, i will take what i can get.  for now, i will take your back.  in the future i will take your sassy mouth and bubblegum smacking lips.  i love you baby girl, here's to our fifth summer together- cheers.

your momma