If you’re a parent of a baby, of course you’ve heard it before, “oh these days will be gone before you know it!”

If you’re a parent of a kindergartener, you’ll hear it in the first few weeks, “oh he’ll be heading off to high school in a blink.”

And by the time your child is entering high school you kind of have some understanding of what they mean. My oldest is starting high school this fall. In fact, she’s already made the volleyball team and is pretty much gone everyday for practice. And it has made me painfully and  incredibly aware of time’s velocity.

It seems like we were just trying to figure out kindergarten. And then figuring out what she’d do for middle school. And now, those decisions have brought us to the here and now of this little baby of ours looking at us eye to eye and making decisions and plans that aren’t necessarily run by us first.

And we know before we know it she’ll be looking at college catalogs in order to figure out her next.

I have already shed a few tears  at this thought and surely will a few more as we hit milestones which seem to be leading to her leaving our home in just a few years.

So if you’re walking with a stroller and I suddenly stop you in your tracks and go on about how you need to hold onto these moments because they go by so fast, I’m sorry. But really, it’s true.

So revel in these moments as best you can – though I know it’s hard to be completely present when life is swirling all around you. And know that in all the moments – whether they are incredibly high or horribly low – they will pass in the blink of an eye.

As for those parents that I’ll see in the kindergarten hall where we’ll be dropping off our youngest on the very same day, forgive me if I crowd the classroom window after they shoo us parents off. I just want one little glimpse before I blink again.

So why go slow? Because the view from here keeps changing.