My baby

My baby will turn 8 in just over a week. I'm not even sure how that happened. I can remember different times throughout my life when one parent or the other would say "It seems like it was only yesterday when you were born!" I always thought they sounded so stupid. I mean, I have been through it all too, and trust me, I did not grow up in the blink of an eye. Quite the opposite. Time crawled by so slowly that at times... like that last week before my 16th birthday.... where I was certain that time had completely stopped. Surely I was stuck in some strange time loop and my birthday would never come.

Two short years later (although they didn't feel short at that time) I gave birth to my first child. Just one month shy of my 18th birthday I became a mother and then it happened. Instead of crawling along at a snail's pace, suddenly life was whipping by at 200+ mph like it's the final lap of the Daytona 500. 13 hours and 40 minutes of labor seemed to stretch on for all of eternity and then after hearing three small words, the next 11 years have passed by in the blink of an eye.

Suddenly I understood what my parents had meant all those years all all it took was three small words. The first time I heard them 11 years ago it was "It's a girl!" Then again 8 years ago when I heard "It's a boy!" How is it possible that I just had to go bra shopping for that precious pink bundle that they just handed me moments ago? (It has to have been moments....not years) How could it be that my little baby boy they handed to me all wrapped in blue is now nearly as tall as I am? How is it possible that they have grown so fast? And how do I slow time down again so that I can keep them safe in the cocoon that is my home?