These bodies won’t be little forever. I tell myself as I watch them all squish into one bath, scooping up bubbles and doing each others hair.

They won’t always struggle to manage their emotions. I repeat over and over as we spend night times battling ‘rages’ over going to bed.

These feet won’t forever track in mud. I watch as they gleefully dump contents of water bottles into the dormant garden bed – now just a space for digging and running fingers through sludge.

These cuddles won’t be so enthusiastically given in years to come. Pudgy, sticky hands thrown around my neck with such fervour, ‘tuddles’ that fix being sore and passionate declarations of love – ‘to infinity and beyond, beyond’.

This won’t be as exhausting in years to come. I wake up groggily, having fallen asleep on the yoga mat again. Collapse into the couch and prop my eyes open, willing myself to get through the rest of the day.

These moments can’t be frozen in time. I try urgently to capture them with my words, still feeling them trickle through spread fingers, oozing back onto the beaches of Time.

This post is part of the #Write31Days challenge that I’m participating in along with a talented community of other writers. We free write for five minutes (or more) guided by a prompt. Today’s prompt is ‘little’. 

For more information on 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes, check out Christina Hubbard’s site!