A Normal Life: My Daughters Growing up

A Normal Life:  I’ve been behind this summer on my Journal entries.  In part because my oldest daughter Charlotte (in photos) finally had time to attend Driver’s Ed.  
 She passed and now we are car shopping, or Tank shopping, because that’s what I want to put her in. 
A Normal Life is about my quest to have children just so I could experience such rites of passage. What I didn’t know was how fast such moments would come; how one day my oldest is a toddler; then the next headed out the door with car keys in her hands.
Every parent knows this sense of time rushing by in way it never seemed to before having children.  Never before have I wanted to freeze time- just a little- now and then.  Never before have I pondered the notion of time travel- and how if I could go back in time it would be to when all three of my daughters were toddlers. That way I could pick them up again, squeeze them, then put them back down to watch them scamper off. Or nap with them - or even change a diaper.  I don’t care.  Any mundane activity was fine with me back then.  I just loved being a Mom. 
Nowadays, I try to remind myself that while they appear full grown - my girls are not.  I still need to be patient, positive (even when they act like Teen Trolls!) and loving. This summer, Charlotte turned 16.  I’m still trying to comprehend this milestone. 
I ran across these photos of her during an early driving lesson and with her true ‘first’ car.

In the photos, I think she’s showing she can keep her eyes on the road and her hands on the wheel. That’s the good news. But us parents know what having your child be able to drive is the beginning of watching them go. I wonder how many times I will watch the tail lights to her car pull away as I watch feeling a mix of pride and a bit of sadness.