Unbelievable, Way too Fast

Yesterday, I was working on some laundry and was putting away some of Tessa's stuff. As I looked at her closet and in some of her drawers I realized (like I do every few months) that she has a lot of stuff in there that she doesn't wear anymore because it's too small for her. So I went and got a storage box so that I could put away some of her "too small" clothes. This process always makes me sad, I love to look at all the outfits and I have such distinct memories of her in each of the things that she has worn. But this time was very different for me, even more sad that usual. Let's back up to this time last year. A year ago at this time I was around 7 months pregnant and was starting to have some baby showers. Of course, when you have baby showers, you receive a lot of baby clothes, most of which are newborn or 3 month things. But you do usually receive a few things of bigger size that people give you to use in the future. As I was cleaning out her drawer of onesies, I was stacking some purple Carter's onesie's that my sister in law Tanya gave me for the shower, they were size 12 month. I remember thinking when I opened that gift, "I love these, but she is never going to be big enough to fit into them." They looked so huge. And I was serious, in my mind I couldn't fathom her ever being big enough to wear 12 mo. size clothes, it just wasn't going to happen. Then yesterday, as I was packing them away into a box, it hit me, not only did I not imagine she would ever fit into these sweet onesies, but it is unbelievable to me that she has now grown out of them. I cannot believe how fast she is growing up, way too fast. You know, when I was pregnant, everyone tells you how fast time flies and you always just give a polite smile and a nod, while the whole time you're thinking, whatever. But it's not until your baby is here and is growing up before your eyes that you realize how fast they really do grow up. We're a little more than 2 months away from celebrating her first birthday which makes me sad and excited at the same time. I'm so excited for the next stage of her life and I love watching her learn new things, but I am so sad to say good-bye to the baby stage. But alas, as I can do nothing to stop her from growing, I am determined to focus on the excited part and spend all my moments loving her and being thrilled to watch her grow into the next phase of her life!