today.

I had a really sweet conversation with a stranger in the parking lot at Kaiser this weekend. I was strapping Emma into her car seat and saying soothing things like, "You're such a big girl," to her because she had just had her blood drawn for some routine lab work. When I turned around there was a middle aged man watching us with a sweet look in his eye and he said, "Enjoy strapping her in while you can, I know everyone says it, but boy does it go fast." He seemed ever so sincere and deep in thought. We chatted for a little bit about how Emma had just turned one. He kept looking at her with such a sweet look in his eye, and then he said, "I'm telling you, two weeks ago I was strapping my daughter into a car seat just like that and this weekend I sent her off to college!" I could tell that he was looking at Emma, but seeing his own daughter when she was that age.

We said good-bye and I got tears in my eyes as I drove off of the parking lot. I get emotional thinking about how I can possibly capture every moment with my girl when it truly does go so fast. My mind starts spinning out of control when I think about sending Emma off to college or handing her a set of car keys (oh my stars, can't even think about it.) or watching her walk down the isle on her daddy's arm. But I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to simply enjoy every single stage we're in, instead of constantly looking forward to the next stage or dwelling on the things I wish I'd done differently in the last stage. Dont get me wrong, there are days I can't wait to be out of diapers or done washing bottles..but I'm going to try harder not to dwell on these things.

Today when I go home I'm going to take a mental picture of Emma as she crawls up to the back of my legs while I'm doing dishes and I'm going to tickle her in that sweet spot on her neck and soak up every single giggle.

I love today.