Between one phase and another: The beauty of ordinary days.

It's been months since I last wrote here.

The last time I shared something was in March, and in a way, it feels like it was yesterday and an eternity ago at the same time.

Perhaps because motherhood is a bit like that.

The days go by so quickly that, before we know it, that seemingly endless phase has already changed. In recent months, my life has been happening.

Not in an extraordinary way every day. In fact, most days it happened in the little things.

On mornings at home.

During meals eaten with a child running around nearby.

Among the scattered clothes.

Toys scattered on the floor.

On last-minute outings to places my son loved and wants to visit every day.

In my son's little discoveries.

In conversations, in hugs, in tantrums, in phases that arrive without warning.

And perhaps that's exactly what I've learned during this time away: the life that deserves to be recorded isn't always the one that seems important while we're living it.

Sometimes it's just an ordinary afternoon.

One day, that ordinary afternoon will be just a memory. We will feel a longing that we don't perceive in the present.

My baby is growing.

One of the hardest things about motherhood, for me, is still realizing how much a child changes before our eyes.

My son is no longer the baby I used to carry everywhere.

He has his own opinions, preferences, catchphrases, jokes, and an increasingly defined personality.

He wants to explore, to understand how things work. He wants to participate. I find myself looking at him and thinking: When did you grow up so much?

While I'm excited for the next stages, I also feel like holding off on this one a little longer.

Because being a mother is constantly living between wanting them to grow up and wishing time would stop.

Discovering our city together

One of the most enjoyable parts of these past few months has been getting out of the house and discovering more about the place where we are raising our family.

Living far from my country taught me to find beauty in places that, at first, were completely new to me. And now the city is starting to feel a little more like home.

We have favorite places, our outings, our little traditions.

I see life through the purity and the attentive, vibrant eyes of my son, and those are exactly the kind of memories I want to cherish.

The fact that I don't need to take my son on extraordinary trips to give him a beautiful childhood is the most interesting part for me.

Sometimes, all it takes is a different afternoon. A return home talking about everything he learned and saw.

Childhood happens in the little details and it's so fleeting.

The more he grows, the more I realize I don't want to create a life based on rushing. I don't want to feel like I always have to be an extraordinary mother. I want him to have beautiful memories by my side, a real childhood, it doesn't have to be perfect.

We don't need to record everything.

You are also living, and that counts too.

Perhaps they just need a mother who is there to experience these moments with them.

With love,

Mother Odie