Seventeen

How can she possibly be seventeen? It seems like only yesterday that she was my little blonde girly playing with dolls and making up songs, riding bikes, and jumping off the swing set (resulting in a broken wrist). Of course, this girl, my oldest child, was never really completely childish. Never content to be “little,” she was always rushing to grow up, trying to hurry the process as much as possible.

Just like her mother. I did the same thing. I didn’t realize way back then that I had all the time in the world. All the time in the world to grow up and get old. That most of our lives are spent as adults, and that we really only get a very short time to be a kid.

But now she’s seventeen, and she starts a new job this week. Time is going by entirely too fast for me, and not fast enough for her. I suppose that’s the way it always is.

We celebrated her birthday with gold and pink balloons and sea shells, and mocha-flavored ice cream cupcakes. We continued the celebration the following day with a fun girls’ shopping trip with my mom, my daughters, and one of my nieces.

And this weekend my second-born will be fifteen! I remember my mom always saying, “Where does the time go?” and I’m beginning to wonder the same thing.