In 1995, when I was seven months pregnant with my daughter Piper, I bought a brown Coach purse. I wanted a purse with a long strap. I didn’t want to lose the purse when I carried the baby’s car seat. Piper liked to play with my purse. She wore the purse around her neck and dragged it across the floor.
Women with gray hair and wrinkles around their eyes talked to me in the grocery store. They said,”It goes so fast. Enjoy her now.”
I would say, “Thank you.” Secretly wondering if the sleepless nights, diapers, potty training, reading Hop on Pop twenty-five times in a row and sitting by her toddler bed until she fell asleep, would ever end.
Now late at night I wave at Piper from the entrance to her room and say,”Good-night.” I don’t sit with her until she falls asleep. I am often in bed hours before she is. Piper sleeps through the night and she is potty trained. Hop on Pop is on the shelf and I don’t read to her at night anymore.
Yesterday when I was shopping for groceries a mother walked by me pushing a shopping cart. In the front of her cart was her daughter. She was about two years old.
I wanted to say to the mother, “It goes so fast. Enjoy her now.”
I just smiled and kept my mouth shut. She wouldn’t have believed me. I didn’t believe the women with gray hair and wrinkles when my daughter was two.
I gave the purse to Piper last year.
Today is Piper’s birthday. She is 18. Happy Birthday Piper.
Are your children older? Did time go by fast? Or do you feel your children will never outgrow the diaper stage?
Please tell me in the comments. I would love to chat.
