Sentimental

My husband's computer plays a random slide show of our family's photos. I just walked into the office and there was a picture of Pepper, little and round and baby-like, under a year old. It moved me to the verge of tears with gross, sappy, sentimentality. I wanted to hold THAT baby again, just for a moment.

I love my girls. I love them now. I love who they are and where they are headed. I cheer them on with each new thing they learn and every new found bit of independence. I do not wish to hold them back. But can't I just have a time machine? A way, maybe just once a year, that I can go back and hold THAT baby. MY baby, so sweet and little and warm. Knowing exactly who they are and who they have become, shouldn't I get to go back and whisper in that infant's ear and tell them how wonderful they will be?

It just seems like a lovely bit of magic; and one that every mother earns. I swear, I'm not asking too much.