Life sped up the day my daughter was born

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A few days ago, I was standing in my kitchen with my daughter when a memory that feels as fresh as yesterday came back to me.

In the memory, she was a toddler. She and I were standing in the kitchen when she dropped her sippy cup. The lid popped off and water went everywhere.

"Oh no," I said. "Wait right here while I get something to clean it up." I dashed off to get a towel, and the whole time I was gone, she was screaming her head off.

When I made it back to her, I found out why: Though I'd told her not to, she had been trying to follow after me, but her little toddler feet couldn't get any traction because of the water on the floor. Every time she tried to take a step, her foot would slip and she would land on her knee. I scooped her up and balanced her on my left hip as I cleaned up the mess with my right. The whole time, I kept telling her everything was OK.

As I recalled that incident, I did a quick calculation. If my daughter was a toddler and light enough that a puddle of water could stop her from walking, she was probably a little over a year old. That means that incident took place about five years ago.

She has changed so much since then.

Was that little memory really so long ago that my daughter could possibly go from being unable to see over the counter top to being a whole head taller than it? She would definitely have no trouble at all getting her footing whether she was standing in a puddle of water or not. And there's no way I could hold her on my hip one hand and wiped up the floor with the other. Picking her up is definitely a two-armed task now.

No matter how much she changes, I think it will always feel like it happens faster than it should've.

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