"I eat, you blink, I grow."
My three year old's newest mantra started after she overheard me telling someone how quickly my babies are growing. Tomorrow, my son will be one year old, which seems impossible, yet somehow it happened.
I'm sitting in a coffee shop getting a much needed break after a long day of whining and fussing, yet somehow the long days strung together fly by too quickly.
I listened to a group of women lamenting over their challenges as grandparents. They felt much wiser than they'd felt as mothers. They felt blessed to have the time they never allowed themselves as mothers, to really spend time with their grandkids. I just listened, thinking all the while how blessed I am. My days are dedicated to my full time job of raising my children. Blowing bubbles, swinging in the backyard, diapering baby dolls, reading stories, making vrooming sounds with toy cars, are all major parts of my day, in between dishes, laundry, meals and other mundane stuff.
I don't always get it right, but I think I've figured out the key: Time! It slips by so quickly, almost unnoticed it seems. Every moment is an opportunity for something, it can be used or wasted. The present becomes the past almost before you know that it was ever there to experience. Nothing teaches this better than being a mom, except perhaps being a three year old.

This is the life I dreamed of. As a little girl in our playhouse in the backyard with my dolls, my sisters and my friends, we made believe that we were mommies and neighbors and daddies and best of all grown-ups. And then one day, make believe became real life. So here I am, the mother of two little angels disguised as monsters sometimes, but truly little angels. One girl, one boy, two dogs (soon three), two cats, two fish, and one terrific husband. I have the best job in the world and today my house is clean (mostly), so life is great.