A sweet birthday

Those of us with kids are constantly provided with unsolicited advice and opinions from just about anyone and everyone. Some of that advice is filled with good intentions, some advice contains misinformation and some of it is helpful. What is most accurate among the mountains of advice is that time goes so fast. I don't think that one believes that piece of advice at first especially when one is "in the moment" being a first-time parent. It seems that when a child is born, one cannot imagine how everything will look decades into the future.

After all, when a child first enters one's life, everything is turned upside down for good reason. For me, my world changed for the better. Still, change happens and a child growing up happens so fast – faster than anyone can imagine.

Yes, the observations are obvious. That logical part of us knows about time. It's like a shuffling deck of cards. Once a routine is set for work, school or any other type of schedule, time flies and so do those childhood birthday celebrations. As parents, we try to make all the birthdays special. From special events held in parks to dress-up soirees to the theme parties, every occasion is memorable. This week my daughter turns another year older. 2014 marks the "sweet birthday." What? How did that happen? One moment I was holding my daughter for the first time and then boom-she's deep into high school with college on the horizon.

For me, being a parent for all of these years has always been a pleasure. My only regret is not cherishing the moments enough as they happened through the years. Even though I was lucky enough to find ways to spend a bit more time with my child through the years than most parents, I just feel that I could have relished the moments even more. That's a tough thing to do when one is multi-tasking in so many roles, but still, I'm still wishing I could have held onto key moments longer. Scratch that being a "tough thing" to do, it's an impossible thing to do! That’s wishful thinking on my part.

So, my little baby is growing up fast which is nothing new in this world. All of us know that we cannot hold onto our little babies forever - even though we cannot resist thinking of them in such terms. She'll always be my little baby no matter how old we all get in this life.

We have to soldier on and prepare them for the real world so that they can make their own way in it. Oh and let’s admit that we parents are scared to let them fly the coop and go out into the real world. It’s all scary, but exciting as well. I’ll keep my head up as the future descends upon us.

At any rate, Happy birthday, Precious!

August 2001