Babies Don't Keep

Tenley fought going to sleep all during church on Easter Sunday.  She only likes to sleep in her bed.  She won't even let me hold her until she falls asleep :-(  I have to let her fall asleep in bed and then I'll go pick her up so I can hold her while she is sleeping.  Anyway, this is Tenley after she passed out after church.  She looks so uncomfortable but so cute!

I have enjoyed the newborn stage SO much this time around.  With Kaylee and Cole I was SO excited to see them grow up and hit their milestones.  I guess I appreciate the newborn stage more this time now that I know how fast they grow up.  Against my best efforts, Tenley is growing up.  More than ever, this poem means so much to me.  I had always heard it growing up, but I appreciate it and love it so much now.  

“Mother, oh mother, come shake out your cloth!

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

Hang out the washing and butter the bread,

Sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking!

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue

(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

(Pat- a- cake, darling and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew

And out in the yard and there’s a hullabaloo

But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look!  Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?

(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Oh, cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

But children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs.  Dust go to sleep.

I’m rocking my baby.  Babies don’t keep.”

Taken from “Song for a Fifth Child” by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton