It all happens so quickly. But yet, it’s so gradual.

The newborn clothes in the closet slowly change to toddler clothes.

The Spiderman costumes have somehow turned to khakis and button-down shirts and camo coveralls.

Those baby toys and shakers and obnoxious music makers too soon are replaced with cars and trains and LEGOs, then phones and tablets and car keys.

Those sweet chubby hands that once wrapped around your fingers as feet were learning to walk are now learning how to shake hands, cook a meal, and help a stranger.

But it doesn’t stop there.

The shelves in your home that once held board books and Children’s Bibles are now holding chapter books and chess sets.

The walls where children’s drawings and photos of toothless grins once hung now display newspaper clippings of sports teams, graduation pictures, and family portraits.

That back seat that was home to a time-consuming car seat is now holding a precious body with smelly feet and an adult smile.

One minute you are beaming with pride while watching your 5-year-old learn to read. The next minute you are beaming with pride as you watch your 18-year-old anxiously give a speech in front of a crowd.

The garage that once housed tiny trikes and training wheel bikes now houses four-wheelers, mountain bikes, and electric scooters. Soon it will hold high-insurance, teenage-driven cars.

Oh, things change so fast. So incredibly fast.

But they change so slowly you will hardly notice the change.

Cherish each day.

Because one moment you will be pregnant and excitedly hanging up Dreft-washed newborn clothes after a baby shower.

And the next you will find those clothes in old boxes and wish just for a minute that you could go back to a time not too long ago when that big kid was a baby, and soak it all in again.

This post originally appeared on My House Full of Boys

 

You may also like: 

He’s Right in Front of Me, But Sometimes I Miss My Son

A Mama Always Thinks She Has More Time

Baby, You’ve Always Got Me