When I was growing up I wanted nothing more than to be older.

I wished away every year, wanting to be a little older so I could do one thing or another.

So I could stop being a baby.

Nowadays time is flying by way too fast. I blink and half a year is gone. I take a nap and it’s been almost a year since we went to Disney.

I take a deep breath and my baby boy is not just a teenager, but an Eagle Scout destined to graduate in just a heartbeat.

Because a heartbeat is all it’s going to take.

A heartbeat and the girls are teens.

A heartbeat more and they are grown.

I want to put a pin in so many moments.

Hold onto them tight and let them pass slower.

Meanwhile my girls are wishing their lives away as I once did.

“I can’t wait for school to start” – just days after the last day of school.

“I can’t wait until I can drive.”

“I wish I was seventeen.”

“I wish…”

“I wish…”

I wish it would stop.

For just a few minutes.

To let me breathe it in.

To make this one heartbeat last a few minutes longer.

Or a lifetime.