along it marches

Today has been another one of those days that's reminded me just how quickly time marches on - and how that reality just sneaks up on you.

If I'm honest, the feeling actually started over the weekend.  My sister T and my BIL M came to visit.  T just hit 20 weeks pregnant and, while i've known she was expecting for a few months now, this was the first time she was visibly pregnant.  It was so weird!  We went and did (quite a lot of) baby shopping on Saturday and I was reminded that it was 9+ years ago now that I was doing something similar.  9+ years.  10 years in September, right after 9/11, I found out I was having G.  Crazy.  It seems like just yesterday but then I look at the strapping young man that is my son and it feels like a lifetime ago.

Sunday morning, G had a soccer game, his last indoor game on the combined U9/U10 team.  They played in a mixed league and the team they were playing on Sunday was obviously mostly U11.  I watched him bravely and tenaciously go up against boys who are 50+ lbs heavier and 6+ inches taller than him (and he isn't small)!  He had 2 assists and 3 shots on goal and my normally spazzy kid played focused and hard. 

The hits came coming today.  G had his very first clarinet lesson tonight.  His instructor mistook him for a 5th grader!  Then I heard my little man, who's only picked up the clarinet once before tonight, play 2 different songs.

We came home and after dinner we were snuggling when I smelled it.  It was light and subtle but I've never noticed it before.  Body odor.  Not mine (that I've unfortunately smelled plenty - yuck) - G's!  My almost 9 year old smelled sweaty - and not that little baby sweaty or toddler sweaty.  TWEEN sweaty.

The calendar tells me  he's almost 9 and that that is a rapid approach intot he tween years.  And I'm not sad that he's growing up.  But it's WEIRD.  It seems to have happened much much faster than I expected.  Especially during those dark, colic, silent reflux baby days when I wasn't sure I'd make it to the next morning.

Friggin' time.  When you're a little kid, you wish it away.  When you're an adult, you're in a hurry for your next vacation, or the weekend, or a day off.  But then things take your break away and make you realize just how quickly time is marching on - and how frightening that can be when you think about it, what it means, where you're marching to.