Smelling Your Clean Babies Head

Your child grows quickly. The first years of your child’s life are going to pass by quickly. When you are in the daily grind, there are certainly days that you feel like it is simply never going to end (when can you finally sleep?), but as the days pass by with many of the same menial tasks coming and going the days suddenly start to fly by. Enjoy the sweet moments when they come, even if they are just brief.

When your child is still a fairly new baby, one of the most enjoyable tasks you’ll have is to wash your baby. This may be terrifying at first if you’ve never done it before, but you’ll soon find that babies usually love the feel of the water on their skin and kicking and splashing around as they grow older. Your baby probably isn’t really too dirty compared to what they’ll get in the future, but it’s still important to keep them clean.

One of the best smells in the world is that fresh baby smell that they have after they come out of the bath. Regardless of what soap and shampoo you actually use, the soft touch of your baby’s skin and that fresh smell are completely intoxicating. As a parent who is running on little sleep, it’s easy to overlook these moments and smells as they are happening. Do your best to slow down and enjoy the moment.

After you get your baby clean and have them dressed, take a few minutes to simply hold your baby close to you and comfort them. Take in their smell and feel their skin against yours. One of the most enjoyable memories that I have as a young father is holding my son on my chest while laying back right after giving him a bath and simply relaxing while taking in the beautiful child that I had.

When you hear a parent talk about parenting being one of the best things that has happened to them in their life, these are the experiences that they’re referring to. There is really no other way to feel the kind of deep joy and love that you feel for a child in any other setting. There are moments in their life as they grow that you take in that lead to parents being enamored with their child.

Parenting has a lot of low points as well. There’s no way to get around that. If you want to enjoy the highs though, you just survive the low points. This is why it’s so important to try to slow things down when the enjoyable moments come. Take them in as much as you possibly can because childhood will pass by quickly and you’ll go through a lot of not so enjoyable moments as a parent.

Our minds like to remember the good of parenting as well. The no sleep nights and long days are often forgotten as your child gets older (no wonder parents have more than one child) and we’ll have fond memories of those simple and enjoyable moments. You’ll have those moments throughout parenthood, even as your child gets older. Stop in those moments and realize how good it is to be a parent.

If you’ve still got a baby, soak in the simpleness of life and the beautiful smell of a fresh baby out the bath. It doesn’t last forever.