Growing Pains

I am the first to admit that I am not a good memory keeper. I don't have scrapbooks overflowing with hundreds of pictures or baby books with every detail of my kid's first year of their lives. I always vow to try and be better about taking pictures and labeling them and keeping them safe but it just doesn't happen. This is not to say that I don't have the memories in my mind though..I do and I cherish them.

The other day I was moving furniture around trying to find a bouncy ball

one of the kids lost and I found a picture. It was dogeared and folded and hard to see clearly. I looked at it for a few minutes and realized it was a picture of my oldest daughter when she was about 5. She had lost her first tooth and I had snapped the picture commemorate the momentous occasion. I sat and stared at it as the whole experience of that time in my life flooded back to me. The surprised look on her face when the tooth fell out. The tears over the drops of blood and the big smile that came next over the realization that the tooth fairy would have to find our house for the first time. That picture really is worth a 1000 words and feelings.

Another thing that the picture symbolized to me was how fast the time is going. Caroline will be done with elementary school in a few days and graduate to middle school. Then high school. Then college. Then marriage. Then grandchildren. That story behind the picture feels like it happened yesterday to me but to her is was a lifetime ago. To me the details are clear and almost tangible. My heart remembers as well as my mind....maybe better.

Her thoughts are going forward to more independence and new adventures while mine are relishing the sweet years behind us. The braces and training bras are bittersweet to me but exciting and new to her. She can't wait to be able to date and drive and be who she is going to be someday. Growing up is such a hard and tenuous process for kids but sometimes it is harder on Moms and Dads.