Isn't is it funny how as parents we can't wait to be done with the sleepless nights, diapers, bottles and laundry associated with that tiring baby stage? Until at last, we are. And then, all at once we find ourselves nostalgic—wishing we didn't wish it all away.
Although Wil potty trained several months ago, I couldn't bring myself to throw out the single diaper pictured here. Removing it would mean closing the final chapter of Ty and Wil's babyhood, but with Ty's 5th birthday around the corner and Wil's 4th coming up in April, it was undeniably time to let go. So, with much ado, I tossed the unused diaper into the trash today. It's estimated that the average baby uses 6000 diapers in a lifetime, so isn't it ironic that after 12,000 dirty diapers, this perfectly clean diaper was the hardest one to throw out?
With it all behind me now, I get teary-eyed thinking about folding warm-out-of-the dryer onsies; the refrigerator doors filled with fresh bottles of formula; the baby powder smell of the stacked diapers and the gratification of rocking my newborn babies back to their peaceful rest in the wee hours of the morning. It was so much work, but I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything.
I've heard it said that parenting is the hardest job you'll ever love. Ain't that the truth.