Time Flies

Since a commenter on my last post quite reasonably questioned the fact that I don't seem to be clear and consistent on how many children I have, I thought I'd share the whole brood with you...along with the bit of nostalgia/dismay that comes from looking at these two pictures side by side. Except, of course, I don't know how to make them appear side by side here, so you'll have to imagine this part. Here are my three kids or, more technically speaking, my one kid and my two stepkids, in the summer of 1998:


My baby was just shy of 18 months old, Matt had just celebrated his fifth birthday that week (at Chuckie Cheese--I'm still not fully recovered), and Beth was seven. When we went to the playground, it was all I could do to keep count of them. Now, as I've undoubtedly mentioned, my daughter is in MIDDLE SCHOOL. Matt is fifteen and growing a mustache, and Beth will be eighteen in just a few weeks and is planning to make me a grandmother (sort of) in June.



Last summer, almost nine years to the day after this picture was taken, was the first time we got them all together for a professional portrait again. Things have changed just a little. Well, okay, a lot. It turns out nine years isn't all that long at all.