baby splashes

Tonight as I was giving MEC a bath, I took a little bit more time than usual to notice the way he splashed in the water.  It wasn't just light splashing; it was full on slapping the water with both hands, arms straight, not holding back, face dripping and beaming in pure delight.  I thought about how differently I'd react these days to my older kids splashing that way in the tub, their big-kid strength spilling water over the sides.  I admit I'd probably focus less on the dripping, delighted faces and more on the sopping bathroom floor.  And I imagine that they would stop such splashing before long because they now "know better" than to make a mess like that (or maybe it's that they'd rather not see my reaction if they did).

I thought about how moments like this with MEC won't last much longer.  Time certainly flies by.  So many of the little milestones for this my last baby have already come and gone without me stopping to realize it (including his turning 7 months old a couple of weeks ago!), so I'm not sure why this one hit me tonight.  Maybe because it was one of those rare moments when I wasn't needing to divide out my attention 5 ways, which I manage to do okay but never great.  It was a simple moment and it felt good to lean a little more into that splashing, let it soak my sleeves and face and smear my mascara.  Makes me want to slow down in so many other ways.