Don't Blink (Or Go on Vacation, Apparently)

My kids suddenly seem older now that we're back in town after a long weekend apart.  I remember this happening to Nathan, after Mark and I spent a week in New York in 2008.  And I think after Dubai, too.  Is this some kind of universal phenomenon, or is it just me?  And my kids?

Nathan got his hair cut right before we left town, so he looks older.  And somehow he sounds older too.  He's constructing thoughts and sentences I didn't know he was capable of.  When he wanted five more minutes yesterday before cleaning up his toys, he told me we don't negotiate. 

Ummm say what now???

And Anneliese moved this week out of her bucket car seat into a toddler convertible seat (turned backwards, of course).  

She was just too tall for that other thing (and has been for months) and anyway it's just too danged heavy to carry around with her in it anymore.  Seeing her riding around in the new backseat barcalounger makes her look old though. 

And seeing her riding like a big kid in a shopping cart (because, you know... the bucket seat is no more) makes her look old too.  (Yes, I am a bad enough mom to let her dangle by the seat strap.  No, I am not a bad enough mom to let her eat those pretzel m&m's.)

And, for real I am not making this up, she started kissing us this week!  At first she was just imitating kissing noises, but now she leans in and plants smackeroos all over our faces, and laughs through the whole thing.  How can she do that already?  How is she suddenly so old?

Stop it, you two!  This is going too fast!  Be babies, just for a few more minutes.  Please?  I need to get off this computer and wake them up* from their naps and drink in every second of their babyness before it's totally gone!

One of those age-old cliches that is so completely true, you know?  They really do grow up too fast.

*Just kidding, I would never wake a sleeping baby.  Duh.