La Nina's Big Day

While Maggie and I were busy in the parking lot, La Nina was off on her first ever big girl adventure. A friend from her gymnastics class invited her back to her house for a spontaneous lunch and play date after class. This is the daughter of the Mom I hang out with during class andI was comfortable with the arrangement. But, seeing my little one climbing into the back of someone else's van made my heart skip a beat.

You know it's funny. I spend most of my days as a parent in the trenches. I'm just trying to get through the day and keep the kids clean, fed and out of trouble. There is always laundry and dishes and some minor disaster that needs wiping, and occasionally something like a play date makes me stop and realize: Wow, La Nina is a little girl.

Wasn't it just yesterday she was a finger sucking baby who couldn't miss a nap? And now she's a 4 year old who has friends and rolls her eyes at me. When did this happen? It must have happened some time between the morning cartoons and the bedtime stories...but I can't put my finger on the exact moment. And that is the fleeting nature of raising children, I suppose. It happens right before my eyes, yet I feel like it happened while my head was turned.

When I picked her up from the playdate, she got in the van and said, "Mom, it was a lot more funner at their house." I laughed-I don't take things like this personally. I answered that it was supposed to be more fun at her friend's house. She giggled, then, she put her fingers in her mouth, tilted her head back and fell asleep in her car seat. It was the perfect reminder: she's still my baby. There's just a lot more of her to love these days.