I am not a very sentimental or nostalgic person, but tonight I am a bit overwhelmed by how quickly children grow. I generally think its silly when so many people remind me "they grow so fast" and similar sentiments. Of course they do! It IS amazing how the progression of time changes to a much faster speed as soon as you have kids, because you are watching them learn and grow every day, but I guess this usually strikes me as obvious rather than something to dwell on.
So, two things that have happened tonight that are making me feel as though the girls really are growing a lot more quickly than I realize. Since we have started feeding Noella, she is getting a bath every night to clean out the food that has found its way all over her face and body (you do have to wonder how so much food can get into her ears, eyelashes, etc!). Mariel is already taking baths every day, so I have just been bringing them both up to the big claw foot tub to bathe them together. Tonight they were playing and splashing one another, both laughing- two kids in a tub. Crazy- I have TWO KIDS! What happened to newborn, helpless baby Noella? Much less newborn Mariel?
Another new addition is that I have started to read to Mariel. I have been reading picture books to her since she was a baby, and we read stories every day. But she and I have just started to read "Little House in the Big Woods" (which she calls "Laura in the Big Woods"). This is a real book, a novel, with only a handful of pictures. She is enjoying it- in a few days, we are almost through two chapters.
This book (and all of Laura Ingalls Wilder's works) were my absolute favorites as a child. The books were also central to most of my imaginary play, as Kristina Hurley and I would spend hours... possibly days... re-enacting and creating stories about Laura and her life as a pioneer child. So reading this particular book is evoking so many memories of my own, as well as making me wonder how it happens so quickly that babies become children who turn into their own independent people.... And why do I think that my mother knows exactly how I feel? :)