It’s a common thing these days: I catch a glimpse of Zoe and find myself thinking, ‘Who are you?’ and ‘Where did my little baby go?’ Although she’s only 21 pounds and not yet a year old (small by most people’s standards), she seems so big – and old – to me. I don’t even think of her as a baby anymore; she’s more of a little girl. She’s constantly moving around, exploring, trying out new things… Every day she amazes me with a new skill, a new ability, a new side of her personality that she seemingly picked up in her sleep.

People warned me that kids grow up fast, but I really didn’t expect this dizzying pace.

Watching someone grow before your eyes is an amazing experience – and also a slightly terrifying one. Just when you feel like you’ve figured out a certain age, or perfected a certain parenting technique, your kid moves on to the next phase – leaving you in the proverbial dust.

The other day, I found myself holding a sobbing, teething little girl – not sure what to do to make things better – and I commented to Q that I was feeling a bit weary about the future. I feel like an expert at this point in caring for *babies*, I told him, but I’m fairly clueless about little girls! What if I can’t keep up?

In calmer, happier moments, of course, I know that all will be fine and we’ll figure out everything. Yet… I wouldn’t mind if things slowed down just a bit. After all, I miss my little baby.

-M

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 4:21 pm and is filed under 12.Nine to ten months. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.