Our Baby is Growing Up So Fast

A tweet from this past weekend:

Jada lost her first molar today. She's growing up so fast. (It's getting a little dusty in here.)

8:58 PM - 31 Mar 13

Here's another marker that our baby is growing up. For one of her homework assignments, she was supposed to go outside her house and observe her surroundings.  Since Amy and I were both too lazy to do this with her, and since we didn't want her to stray too far from the house, I told Jada that after dinner she could finish all her other homework, brush her teeth, and put on her pajamas, and then she could sit on our front porch to do this assignment. 

So she did this, while I started washing the dishes.  A few minutes in, I decided to check in on her.  But rather than open the front door, go outside, and see how she was doing, I looked through the window in our first floor bedroom, since the bench on our front porch is right outside that window.  

Our first floor bedroom, you may know, was Jada's first bedroom, before we stopped having third floor tenants and moved her up there.  And so as I saw my little girl sitting stoically out front, taking in her surroundings, I could not help but think of the many hours I had spent in the very bedroom from which I was watching her.  Changing her diaper, rocking her to sleep, coming in at odd hours to console her . . . it all came back to me in a rush.  The juxtaposition of images and feelings - about a little baby from China and a nervous first-time dad, and now a blossoming 2nd grader and her still-proud father - was stark.  

I finally did go outside, to snap a pic of her, and then went back inside to finish the dishes.  A few minutes later, she was back inside, too.  And a few minutes after that, we were doing bedtime stories and she was telling me she intended to memorize all of the vice presidents of the United States.  (I don't doubt she will be able to do this.)  

I'm not sure if she recognized that I was squeezing her a little tighter than usual, or if she did, I'm sure she couldn't fathom why.  Maybe when she becomes a parent, and holds on for dear life as her own precious baby grows up, she'll figure it out.