Thoroughly Modern Millie

Yesterday, I left my baby behind in South Carolina. After an overnight stop at the Ladd bed-and-breakfast (plus supper!), I'll leave my other baby behind in Topeka.

It doesn't seem like a fair exchange, but later today I'll be home to see my other baby. Millie the Dog seems to have skipped through the baby years and scurried right into adulthood - at least in appearance.

I suppose it's a metaphor for life. Sometimes, when you're winding up the swing to try desperately to get the baby to sleep, you think that it will never end - the sleepless nights ... the diaper changes ... the piles of laundry... figuring out yet another meal ... the toys littering the living room ... the teenage angst.

But then it does. And you miss it. And you wonder where the time went because it just flew by.

Perspective is a funny thing indeed.

Maybe Millie has been a good reminder of the fleeting nature of time.

Here she was in June. We had just discovered that she had dug up the petunias at the front of the house. She'd been living with us about a week at the time.

June 10, 2011
(Even Ralph looks rueful!)

And these days, she's nearly as tall as Ralph (though she has a tendency to still act like a kid most of the time).

November 2011

She's discovered artifacts in the netherlands of the farmstead. This faded K-State ball appeared in the backyard one day.

It was probably lost at some point in time by this cast of characters. Its arrival made me smile and remember all those backyard games and the boys in the basement, playing yet another round of Xbox.

Millie has been my own personal archeologist, helping dig up memories from my own backyard.

And, as we approach the birth of our granddaughter in January, Millie has reminded me again of the fleeting nature of time. She's been proof positive of how quickly babies change in that first year of life. She's been the reminder of how toddlers turn into kindergarteners and how high school seniors soon pack up their cars and drive away to new adventures.

That's the nature of life. We need to enjoy the moments - especially the moments we thought would never end as we were living them.

(More to come this week from our adventures during Thanksgiving week. We traveled to South Carolina to spend Thanksgiving there with Brent.)