Enjoying every moment

We lived in San Francisco when I took this picture of Caroline with her grandfather. She loved to read.  Brown Bear Brown Bear was her favorite book. We had a feisty, spry ninety-year-old next-door neighbor who used to say to me, in the way that older people do, "enjoy every moment because she'll be grown-up before you know it." I would laugh and say, "oh we do!" But the truth is, I didn't enjoy every moment. I enjoyed many moments. Just not every moment.

Around the time this picture was taken Caroline was an awesome sleeper. I enjoyed that. But a few months later, when she started to crawl, she decided she wasn't ever going to go to sleep again. I didn't enjoy that. She was so determined that she wasn't going to go to sleep ever again that she started to vomit every night when we put her down. I didn't enjoy that.

Eight years later I can actually laugh at Caroline's determination not to go to sleep. This was so telling of her personality. She is still so determined about many things. Reading is still one of her most favorite activities but she has moved on from Brown Bear Brown Bear to A Wrinkle In Time and other third - grade favorites. 


My ninety-year old neighbor was right. Time does go by in a flash. But what I realize eight years on is that those moments I don't enjoy now may be moments I'll appreciate in the future. Like in another eight years when I'm sitting in the passenger seat next to a sixteen-year-old determined to get her driver's license.

Do you have moments that were difficult for you at the time, in the moment, but that you enjoy and appreciate later? Maybe even years later?