Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Flash Forward

I've been peer pressured to link up at Lovelinks this week.  This is a fabulous site so check them out and as many other blogs as you possibly can! 


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We sit at the kitchen table, it's too early to be awake but alas, he was hungry.

The only light on is the soft glow over the stove.

I sit and watch him eat his beloved cereal.

This child?  Would eat cereal morning, noon and night if I let him.

He sits up on knees, his back perfectly straight, his small hand splayed beside his bowl of cheerios to keep balance.

I run the tips of my fingers along the four dimples of his knuckle line.

He looks at me and smiles then returns to the serious business of cereal eating.

He fills his spoon with an even amount of cheerios to milk ratio, his mouth open wide to receive it.

He chews, his dimple peeking out with each deliberation, milk dribbling down his chin.

I sit in the early dawn and watch my littlest son.

At once my mind travels forward in time 15 years from now.

Perhaps we're sitting in a different kitchen, probably at this same table.

It's a good one.

I watch him as a teenaged boy with a beautiful head of golden hair bent over his bowl of breakfast.

His one arm on the table, forearm guarding his bowl, his other shoveling the food in quickly.

Perhaps he's running late for school...

Football practice

Meeting his friends

A girlfriend

Once finished he jumps up from the table grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair, his phone from the kitchen counter, tucking it in his back jean pocket.

"See ya later Mum.  Love you!"

And I watch as he turns and out the door he goes...

I wonder what kind of teenager he will be.

I hope a good one.

I wonder what kind of Mother I will be to two teenaged boys.

I hope a great one.

This has been the way my mind works since the birth of my sons.

In twists and turns, always fast forwarding in time when I least expect it to.

I pull my mind to the present,

Willing it to stay in the here and now.

He's moved on to the sweetened milk

The little hand that once laid purposefully on the table now has tipped the bowl toward himself to scoop  the honey flavoured milk out spoonful by spoonful.

And there my mind goes again...

I wonder if he'll always love his cereal so,

If he will always drink his leftover sugary milk.

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A link up at http://thewriteandthewrongword.blogspot.com/....come check some more blogs out!

16 comments:

Erica M said...

I truly enjoyed this post. Thanks for sharing it at lovelinks! Yay for peer pressure!

Ado said...

Okay, wow. That was poetic and beautiful.
It also made me feel a little ignorant as I've never had the foresight to imagine the table I'd be sharing with my daughter 10 years from now - but now thanks to this post I will! (-:
PS: Glad you succumbed to the pressure! (-:

Alison said...

Aw, that was beautiful. I do that too, imaging the day my son is older, teenaged and wonder what he'll be like. Then I look at him now and he's still wanting to cuddle with me, and my heart melts. Sigh.

Laura@Catharsis said...

Okay, you have me in tears here. I also have two little boys, and I don't want them to grow up, to not let me kiss and hug them, to be out from under my protection. *sigh* I will live in the now and enjoy every last moment with them. Thanks for sharing!

Kid Id said...

I think of that stuff too and hope in desperation they will still at least be talking with me. It also reminds me of my own mother still trying to rub my hand or shoulder well past the age I would let her. It drove me insane and yet my response never daunted her. She just continued because it made her happy.

Brandy @ Momwich said...

You will love lovelinks!

I loved your post, but held on to these lines:
"I pull my mind to the present,
Willing it to stay in the here and now."

If only I had taken that advice, maybe the past 16 years of my daughters life wouldn't have gone so quickly.

Beautiful post!

A Morning Grouch said...

Sometimes peer pressure can be a good thing! I'm impressed you are fast forwarded 15 years, I am hoping that I'll be a good wife/friend/etc.. TOMORROW. Thanks for sharing.

January Dawn said...

Thank you everyone for your super kind comments! I think I may have to link up with lovelinks again. What an incredibly supportive group of people.

Mommy2¢ said...

Very beautiful poem. Glad you linked up to share this with us! :)

Visiting from Lovelinks

Dwija {House Unseen} said...

Sigh. Lovely. My boy is a cereal lover, too. He is already so himself, even at just 4 years old. His own little person. It's just going so fast!

Mirjam said...

I really like the way you write, makes me sigh.

Jamie said...

So sweet. I do this a lot too.
Visiting from lovelinks!

Carina said...

Love this post. There's something so personal - I have a kitchen in mind I and I can see you watching a shadow of your teenage boy running out the door behind you, while sitting with your son in front of you. Beautiful.

January Dawn said...

Again...thank you to all who came by and gave such beautiful comments...wow. To make people sigh with my writing. Awesome. And Carina, your comment gave me goosebumps because that's exactly what was going on in my mind.

Anonymous said...

You wonder "If he will always drink his leftover sugary milk."

And I suddenly wonder when I stopped doing that, started thinking, in fact, that leftover sugary milk is icky and trying to put as little milk into my bowl as I possibly can. Is it a rite of passage, the move from flooding the bowl to barely milking it? Or is it one or those things like eating corn on the cob that everyone does differently.

paradigmjohn said...

I still love my sugary milk...I think our boys will always as well. Watching Fin and Aidy is sometimes like reliving my youth in front of my own eyes...

Another great story my sweets.