In The Blink of An Eye

Nothing charts the growth of a child quite like the progression of a school year. Sure, there's the marks on the doorframe, the lost teeth, the birthdays....All great markers of the passage of time. But there's something about that movement from the first day of school to the last that captures the seemingly plodding yet ultimately fleeting nature of childhood.

Older children are different than babies and toddlers. With the wee ones, everything is new and breathlessly anticipated, so the changes are dramatic. With big kids, there's a subtlty to the changes; it's a more cumulative effect. All those moments pile up unnoticed thoroughout the year, and then suddenly it's right there in front of you. While you were busy with the day to day business of life, your children were busy growing. The freshly scrubbed, slightly uncertain child who was sent to school back in September has, by June, become infinitely more confident, if somewhat more worse for wear. Baby fat gives way to planes and angles, freckles sprout, and shoes are outgrown overnight. All major changes, but made someow minute in their enormity. Babies are often watched with a microscopic intensity, while kids are often looked at without really being seen. It's nice to have moments like the last day of school that encourage us to stop and take notice of the changes our children have undergone over the past year as they progress towards adulthood.

Yesterday I dropped my second-grader off at school, just like I have for an endless parade of mornings; in the afternoon, I picked up a newly minted third-grader.

Comments

My youngest is 12, almost 13. Yesterday, I found some pictures of her taken last Canada Day.

The change is phenomenal. In one year, she's gone from little stick-figure girl to tall, curvaceous woman.

I was there when it was happening, I knew what was going on, and yet it took the pictures to show me how dramatic the changes were. You're right: with older children, we need those markers!