Don't Blink, Mamas

Seriously.  I know it's a cliche.  "It goes so fast," say all the gray haired ladies that coo over your baby in the shopping cart.

Dude.  Stop and listen.  It really DOES go fast.

Oh, I know, when you've got two preschoolers duking it out over a toy and the baby just spit up all over your only clean shirt, you're thinking, "Yeah, right.  Feels like eternity to me."  Been there, done that.

This is me with my daughter, Annaliese.  I put in the boot camp years.  I had a bunch of littles all at the same time.  I remember the exhaustion, the squabbles, the mundaneness of the sheer amount of work involved in running a houseful of small children.  

Only thing is, it's not so very far from the picture above to the picture below.   

That's a driving permit.  Proof that, in the eyes of the state, at least, my little girl is growing up.  

Even though I sometimes still see her like this:  

The reality is, my little Guppyzilla is almost all grown up.  And those days that I foolishly wished away were the only chance I had to prepare her to be the person God designed her to be.  

A picture with Dad before leaving for Homecoming

I wish I had baked a few more batches of muffins with her when she still needed a step stool to reach the counter.  I wish I had read her one more story when she asked.  And although I'm proud of the person she's becoming and I know she'll do great at whatever she chooses to focus on in life, there's a part of me that grieves the loss of my little girl.

It goes so fast.  What will you do, today, to pour into your future grown ups?


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