I sat down and took a deep, exhausted breath. The woman next to me turned and gave me a little smirk. “Toddlers!” I said, through a sigh with a run-down smile. “Well enjoy it now because you’ll miss it someday,” she managed to get out before I jumped up to get my toddler again. “Sorry!” I called out to her. Normally, I wouldn’t interrupt a conversation so suddenly but my two year old isn’t too concerned. She knows please, thank you, and even gets out the most adorable “oh sorry, Mommy!” without prompting, but she’ll pull me wherever and whenever, especially if she’s very excited! People everywhere remind you to love it while it lasts and it may not always show but I really am enjoying these early years.

A trip to the bathroom alone recently resulted in my toddler letting our dog out into the neighborhood. I’ve had five children and still haven’t mastered how to go to the bathroom without either an audience or a risk that someone is going to burn the house down. The toddler years are rough ones. I maintain that for an on-demand nurser such as myself, infant years were worse. I will say that I think I may have slept better back then? And at least nursing burned calories! I suppose chasing a toddler run amok could too but the nursing took less out of me! (Figuratively, since literally nursing takes a lot out of you! Nutrients, hooray!)

You can hear the chaos in my tales and I think that’s what prompts people to insist that I appreciate it now. “They grow up so fast”, they tell us. In the back of our minds, we know this. We know how fleeting each milestone is. That’s why, despite the way our children push us, pull us, and test us, I know that we are all still savoring this time we have with them.

I’m not saying that I’m wiping a little booty thinking “Aw, some day they won’t need me to do this anymore” because I’m not. I look forward to dropping that one from my chore list (and I’m almost there!). But when it’s around 2am and my toddler climbs up into the bed between my husband and I, holding my hand until we fall back asleep, I am floating on that moment. I look at her tiny fingers intertwined with mine and adore how she gazes up at me with love and a tiny joyful giggle. I’ll get less sleep and I’m absolutely okay with that fact because I know it won’t be forever.

When her itty bitty voice speaks in full sentences, I go back to when all it could do was coo and think about how quickly she’s grown. Before I know it, it will be giving a graduation speech. I know how this goes and there’s nothing I can do to slow it down except cherish all of those good moments.

It’s okay to feel run-down sometimes or long for the next chapter. Stress does that to people! My kid constantly tries to sneakily color on the walls and deliberately touches things she shouldn’t, it can be exhausting and stressful. But I don’t have to tell you that it’s full of magical moments too. You know, you’ve watched in glee as they tried to read a story to you or got so excited about an airplane flying overhead. I think that no matter what you do, how many walls they color on or snuggles they give you, you’re going to miss this stage.

So I’m telling you that it’s alright to feel wiped out. Everybody needs to release. You’re allowed to sigh and you can vent to me about how many tantrums she threw today, I will understand. You know that you’re appreciating this time and that you’ll miss it someday. We all will.

What do you think you will miss the most about the toddler years? Or what do you miss the most?