The Beginning, Again

 On Tuesday, at the coffee shop, I noticed a young mom and dad sitting across from each other. The mom scarfed down a sandwich while glancing at the car seat on the table as if the newborn could escape.

I loved watching the parents, remembering going out for frozen yogurt when Miss A was a newborn, and how I kept glancing beneath the blanket I’d draped over the top of the car seat like a germ shield.

Five and a half years ago, and yet a lifetime had passed.

When the young parents got up, I asked how old their baby was. “Four weeks,” the mom said, and she smiled from ear to ear, proud even though sleep-deprived.

I found the words pouring out of my mouth before I could stop them: “I know everybody says it goes by so fast, but it really does.”

“Oh, I know!” she cried. “He’s already growing out of his newborn sleepers!”

We exchanged some more parenting pleasantries, and then they left. I watched them with a lump in my throat, remembering the beginning again, and now my eldest no longer has baby curls and is as lanky as a colt. I then had to laugh at how I could be nostalgic about parenthood when I had a breast pump in the minivan, along with bags of overpriced Paw Patrol paraphernalia for my middle child’s third birthday.

But later, when I was back in the throws of motherhood (dinner simmering, baby crying, five-year-old melting down over homework, middle child . . . well, lately she’s been pretty easy out of necessity), I didn’t feel nostalgic at all.

So, I’m convinced God pulls that curtain back from time to time, so we can view parenthood as a gift before all our children are grown, and we’re telling another young mom and dad how it all goes by so fast.

What is your favorite memory from early parenthood?