They say it goes fast, right? The days are long, but the years are short. Don’t blink. All of that.
But somehow, it’s still taking me by surprise when I realize I have a rising high school sophomore and a baby (who is not a baby anymore) who is a week away from hitting double-digits and will start middle school in the fall.
I’m excited for them both to be growing up – proud of them, thrilled to see the people they’re becoming, honored to call them my children, blessed to consider them my friends.
I know they’re becoming more independent. They can navigate technology far better than I, maintain basic standards of personal hygiene and grooming without reminders, cultivate enduring friendships. My older kid can rattle off physics formulas and translate songs from French to English on the fly. My younger one can make a mean plate of scrambled eggs and fix my iPhone. From roller derby to Minecraft, they have unique skills and passions and interests.
But a distant part of my brain still remembers carrying them in a Moby Wrap and kissing the tops of their heads. Spooning pureed pears into their toothless mouths. Pacing the floor as they screamed their way through infancy. Cheering as they took their first steps. Crying as they started pre-K.
When your youngest is 10, as Georgia will be on Monday, you really have to face the fact that you don’t have babies anymore. In fact, you don’t even have young kids anymore. A 10-year-old is in solid tween territory, in Georgia’s case complete with newly pierced ears, trendy clothes, and way too many perfumes from Bath & Body Works.
I’m not sad to see them grow up. I can’t wait to watch what the next few years will hold, and while I’m sure there will be some rough patches, I’m equally sure that there will be joy and celebration.
It’s still a little jarring to realize that 2025, Ruby’s high school graduation year, which seemed crazy-futuristic when she was born in 2006, is just a few short years away, or that 2012, when Georgia was born, which doesn’t seem that long ago, is actually a decade in the past.
It’s gone fast, for sure. The days have been long; the years have been short. I blinked and my babies weren’t babies anymore.
I think I might have to get another dog.
