First, the photos....
I was editing these photos and it hit me. Ton of bricks hit me. She's growing up. I mean, sure, I've known it all along. But have you ever had one of those moments? Where reality suddenly comes slamming into you and for a moment, it takes your breath away? I looked at that first photo and I couldn't believe that it was my Hailey staring back at me. In a way, despite the fact that I know she'll be turning 7 in 3 months, I haven't looked deeper. I haven't seen the change. Life goes by so quickly that you forget to take a closer look. You go through each day, living by routine, getting things done, and you forget to notice. That's what happened here. I didn't take the time to notice the changes. That scares the daylights out of me. She's growing so quickly that I'm losing fragments of time. I can't keep up. I want to keep up. I want to notice every little change. I want to hold onto it because I know that before long she's going to be a young woman.
She informed me yesterday that her friend Maddison gave her her phone number. Mac looked at me and said "does it start now? will she be calling her friends and talking all day?" He forgot to notice too. I think, at that moment, it struck him that we don't have our "little" Hailey anymore. We have a new Hailey. A Hailey with a group of friends. A Hailey whose group of friends have "boyfriends." A Hailey who wants to call her friends on the phone. A Hailey who wants to join baton because her friends are in it. A part of me is screaming for time to just stop. Another part is looking forward to more changes, more adventures. I'm already starting to see me in her. That floors me.
After staring at the first photo for what seemed like hours I took a look at the second. It brought a huge grin to my face. That's my silly Hailey. She was doing a Star Wars move of some sort. The bubble wand was her light saber. Notice her pants sagging at her waist. Notice her flower panties showing. That's the Hailey I hope I always have. The silly, free, happy go lucky Hailey. I hope she keeps that carefree attitude throughout all the changes to come. It will save her.
Moments after I took these photos drama ensued. She scraped her leg and all hell broke loose. She needed bandaids and crutches. She screamed to go to the hospital. She screamed and hopped on one leg when I told her I didn't have crutches. I wanted to laugh but I knew better. She was serious. Drama serious. She wanted those crutches by God. And that, I know, is only the beginning.