They Grow Up So Fast, Relative to a Turtle

Have you ever been in the situation where you dare strangle the next person who says, "they grow up so fast", when you've just spent the past week in the same surroundings, trying to convince the little one that she really doesn't want to pretend to be a baby? I'm all for cute and adorable babies, but it doesn't count as cute when your supposedly leaving the terrible two's behind. Lately, its been all *carry me* *feed me* *toilet? what's that? I have a much more convenient system for relieving oneself attached to me already!*.

Of course, when threatened with the true life of a youngling, namely that of crib time and banana pudding (hmm, that seems to eerily apply to uh, older folks too) suddenly, she's all grown up. I know it's just another phase in a long series of kiddie phases. And, granted, there are cute Kodak moments throughout the experience, but they are moments to be lived in and shared, not to be framed and composed from on the wrong side of the lens.

I know that she will get older, and more independent. Eventually. I know that with every passing day, I bring her to the inevitable path of her own life. And I know, she'll walk out on that path as fully as prepared to take on life as I have been able to prepare her. But, looking out over that prospective future, it seems a long way off before I'll claim that, 'she grew up fast'.