Babies Don't Keep

This morning we attended a birthday party for the sons of our friends, Jeremy and Rachel. Josiah is 4 and Micah will be 2. My, how time flies! Time does seem to go faster when you have kids. There is more to do and the little ones change so fast. There is always the next phase and then the next and then you realize how much they've grown and you wonder where the time went.

Today, I read this poem that Rachel had hanging on their wall and I feel like it is worth sharing.

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

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,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye 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 there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can 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 and babies don't keep.

- Ruth Hulbert Hamilton