where am I?

After almost 5 years of parenthood, both of my kids are finally sleeping until about 7 a.m. Yet another milestone has been reached. Parenthood seems to be passing me by in the pursuit of milestones. Sitting up, crawling, eating sold food, facing forward in a car seat, moving to a booster seat, talking, sleeping through the night, going to school; there always seems to be some big event to which I am trying to direct my kids. It is not made any easier by the fact that those with kids older than mine are continually pointing me towards such milestones. Wait until you have kids, wait until potty training, wait until they are teenagers, wait until college, etc... The cultural message I sometimes hear concerning parenthood is that now is never enough. This makes me afraid. I fear that I will spend so much time getting my kids to the next thing that I will never take the time to get to know them. I hope that I am not missing that chance. These milestones are important. In some ways, they are a measure of success in parenting. After all, it is my job to get them ready for life. They are not mine to keep. At the same time, I don't want to rob my kids of their identity like I do with so many other things in life as I continually seek to get to the next things.

But in the long run we have found
Silent films are full of sound
Inaudibly free

Slow down everyone
You're moving too fast
Frames can't catch you when
You're moving like that
-"Inaudible Melodies"
Jack Johnson