"They grow up way too fast...."

If I have hear that once, I've heard it hundreds of times. Lately, I've been thinking about just how quickly my step children are growing up. I remember 7 years ago when I was just getting my feet wet with instant motherhood-- I thought I would never see a day when they would possibly grow up.

Mariah is now a junior in high school and plans on moving into her own place after high school....that is less than two years from now! Bradley has already moved out. I always worry that we haven't taught them enough...or we haven't taught them well enough. I worry that they're going to catch their own kitchen on fire or do something equally stupid and preventable. Did my mom worry about me this way? I felt so ready to leave the house when I was 18, but recognizing that Mariah is 18 months away from her 18th birthday scares me half to death. I can't even think about Elle and Domi.

I don't know if other parents feel this way, but I'm acutely aware that time moves quickly and that the time we have together as a small, familial unit is short. Oh, I know that they will grow up, get married, do their own things...but it won't ever be the same again. Holidays won't be the same...Sunday afternoons won't be the same. Somehow I'm hoping that it all gets "better." I'm hopeful that it will.

I suppose looking at these pictures I took over the weekend made me realize how much they are growing up and they it is all happening way too fast!