The little things

Today I was at the bargaining table (for what seems like the eleven billionth time this year).  I use my old laptop for school/union stuff outside the house, and I loaded it with a bunch of baby pictures back in late January.  I may have added a few since then, but not many.  They are my screen saver.

So as I listened to the District lay out the reasons why they thought we were being unreasonable...again...I got to stare at pictures of the Salvateenies when they really were teenies.  It made getting through the meeting a little easier.

It also made me realize something.  People always talk about the amnesia that mothers get about the pain of childbirth (I wouldn't know - C-section? Total breeze...), or that new parents get about how hard the early days with newborns are.  But who knew it set in so quickly?

Do you know that when he was brand new, I used to worry that Max's nose was too big?  It's true! I mean, look at the SIZE of that nose:

But now, of course, he has totally grown into it.

Do you remember that Caroline used to be BALD?

I mean, she actually had a lot of hair in that picture - it FELL OUT after that, and she got even balder!

But look at her now:

TONS of hair!  It even curls over her ears!

Now, we know that when people tell us how adorable the Salvateenies are, they are telling the truth.  We know they're not just being polite - the babies are legitimately cute.  But people have been telling us that since they were born.  And let's face it, when they were two weeks old, they looked like aliens:

Well, maybe not aliens, but at least like really old men:

I'm not quite sure when they started looking normal - I don't really remember there being a change.  Maybe it was around Halloween:

And I remember the things they used to do that amazed us.  When they lay on their backs and could reach up to hold the toys on the exercise mat:

But even that's amazing - see how low the octopus in the middle is hanging?  And it was once TOO HIGH for Daniel to grab.  Then he could reach it, so we raised it, and then he could reach THAT.  But I don't remember him getting BIGGER.

I realized this all tonight, as I was trying to soothe Max to sleep.  Sure, there are the big milestones:  teeth, rolling over, eating food, talking.  But what about the fact that Max can now hold his own pacifier and pull it out of his mouth when he doesn't want it and then PUT IT BACK IN when he's done talking? By himself!  Caroline has been trying to sit up forever, but now as she sits in her bouncy chair and starts her ab routine, she pumps her little legs so hard, I worry she's going to bounce herself clean out of the chair.  And Daniel, the first to master the yelp that means "Mommy - she's TOUCHING me!" which he employs anytime he and Caroline are lying together on the floor and she so much as grazes him with her foot.

I guess it's true - they grow up too fast, and you forget it all too easily.

Thank god I've taken over a thousand pictures to remember it all by!