Blink And You'll Miss It

"Mommy?" Natalie said as I tucked her in for the night. I pressed the covers underneath her chin, just as she likes it.

"Yes?"

Natalie took a deep breath. I thought she might be working up the nerve to tell me about a bad grade she got. She looked nervous. Her eyes were darting all over the place. "I...wantnewsheets." Her words came out in a clump. I had to strain to hear them.

"I'm sorry," I said kindly. "I didn't quite get that."

Natalie licked her lips. "I...want new sheets."

Oh. I stared down at her sheets. They were Frozen sheets. Anna and Elsa beamed at me. Once upon a time, Natalie was thrilled about them. It was during the whole Frozen craze when it was impossible to find products with the beloved sisters on them. I lucked out and found the sheets at Target, just as they were stocking them on the shelves. Natalie's eyes had lit up when she saw them on her bed.

"I love them," she had breathed. "They're my favorite!"

But she was 7 then. Now she had just turned 10.

"You don't like Anna and Elsa anymore?" I asked. Like millions of other kids in the world, she was obsessed with Frozen.

Was. Past tense.

"I like them," Natalie said. "But I just want new ones."

"Grown adults sleep on cartoon sheets," I reminded her.

"You don't."

"Only because your Daddy wouldn't let me get Beauty and the Beast sheets. When you share a bed, it gets tricky."

"Can I though?" Natalie asked. "Get new sheets?"

With a lump in my throat, I agreed. I mean, it's natural. She's growing up. She's evolving. Did I really expect her to sleep in those Frozen sheets forever?

It wasn't just the sheets though. She decided that she was ready to say goodbye to a lot of toys. Where a Barbie Dreamhouse once sat, a desk now does:

Her Frozen sheets are packed away. They were once covered in Disney characters:

Now she has new sheets, with items that she says are "kawaii":

Blink, and you'll miss it.


You'll wonder if the pile of picture books that you used to read to your little girl was ever there at all. You used to dread when she'd beg for you to read If You Give A Cat A Cupcake for what seemed liked the 1000th time:

But when it's gone, when the books are packed away, you'll wish you had known how fast it would go by.


Blink, and you'll miss it. One minute she's a tiny little girl obsessed with Rapunzel.

And then she's double digits.

"Mommy," Natalie said as she sat on her new bed with her items that she says are "kawaii." "I'll still have memories if everything. I'm still your baby girl." She beamed at me.

"You'll always be my baby girl."