Another skinless parenting moment.

Dropped Gracie and Matt off at Logan. Grace has been levitating with excitement for days about her trip. I walked into school to pick her up today at 2 and she just stared at me and said, “NOW?” We had a brief torrent of tears at saying goodbye, and then my brave little girl wiped her face and took off into the crowd of travelers, backpack on her back. I watched her weaving through the adults, her bright pink and green bag making her visible far into the crowd, and gulped back my own tears.

When did she get so big and grown up? She seemed like such a mature little girl taking off with her daddy, without a backwards glance. I simultaneously thought of her as a tiny baby and of the many, many times she’ll walk away from me in the future. The tension between memory and anticipation is a hallmark of parenting for me, as well as the profound awareness of time passing.