Life Stages, Already

Now that K. is approaching his 18 month birthday, I've been thinking a lot about how much he has changed in the last few months.  Talking about young children growing and changing is nothing new, of course, but it is interesting to me to see how the changes sneak up on you.  

To me, the changes in K. are not constant; rather, he seems to stay the same - same face shape, body structure, etc. - for a chunk of time and then, voila!, overnight it seems he has turned into a new person.  

The thought occurred to me the other morning when I was watching him eat his breakfast.  His eyes seem like the only feature of his face that are recognizable, while the rest of his face has transformed - it's thinning and lengthening.  

There's another physical aspect of K. that hasn't changed.  When I creep into his room at night, I stare at his profile as he sleeps ... and it still reminds me of those ultrasound pictures we studied so much before he was born.  I love that I can still see the resemblance to the pre-birth K.  I think that as long as his silhouette remains the same, I'll still consider K. a "baby". However, now that he's talking and walking and running and into everything, he really seems much more on the "big boy" level than ever before.  

I remember the first few days after we had brought him home, when I was still in a hormonal, sleep-deprived fuzz, and it seemed that all I was obsessing about was that he would grow up too fast. Sounds ridiculous that this was what I focused on in those early days, but it was true (must have been the mood swings).  Now that it's been a year and a half, time seems to have passed both quickly and slowly.  I try to make a point of relishing each day -- especially the lazy ones -- knowing that they are all temporary.