I'm hoping now that as fall has begun and something resembling a normal schedule is starting to set in that I'll be back to my once-a-week pace of writing. It's been very hard to get consistency with everything going on this summer, and I mostly blame those dang babies. Not to mention Baby LeVasseur, our new nephew coming this November! Days after getting back from seeing the twins (and them getting to meet their Uncle Marc!), we had a whirlwind trip to Boston to celebrate Marc's brother, Paul, and his lovely wife Sharon and their little bundle o' joy.
I scratched down a couple of Baby Thoughts a week ago, my last full day with Atlas and Zoe, knowing that I'd want to write about them. What I wanted to muse over today was not the big, obvious kind of change - a change in job, schedule, a big change like a baby learning to walk - but the kind of change you have to search a little harder for.
Babies change every single moment of every single day. You can put a baby to bed, and come get them the next morning and their cheeks are a little chubbier, or maybe they give you a smile they couldn't give you the day before. They crawl, walk, run, talk, and lord do they every grow a mile a minute. It's obvious, and it's rapid-fire. Each week is a time capsule and you know you're on a rollercoaster that will never, ever stop.
When I saw Atlas and Zoe the first time, seeing them at six weeks after last seeing them at one week, I was staggered. Atlas was unrecognizable. Zoe still looked like Zoe, just bigger. It's one of the reasons I hate leaving them so much - I know I'm never going to see them this size again. The next time I visit won't be until December and they'll be totally different creatures then - and huge! Especially if they keep growing at this rate.
They're different kids every time.
Do adults change that much? It's not as obvious in terms of physical milestones or physical changes, unless you get a haircut or something. When we gain and lose weight it's usually on the gradual side. We're done growing - and if we're going to shrink, taht usually happens gradually too. If you haven't seen a friend for a month, you can expect they're still basically your same friend.
We still live and grow and learn every day, though. There's still got to be some kind of internal change. Is your friend the same person now as they were a month ago? Are your parents? It's an interesting question. I don't know the answer to it, so there's not really going to be a wise conclusion, but the more I spent time with little A&Z, marveling at how time flies and how unfair it is that they won't be my tiny little bugs forever, the more it opened me up to wondering about how this change applies to everybody. It's the only constant in life - yet I feel like there's a constant narrative in our culture about how, "People don't change." Or worse, can't change. Men get stuck with that more often than women, I think.
What do you think, friends? Do we change that much as adults? Is our outward lack of rapid development and change reflective of our inward selves? Or does it just depend on the person? Is it better or worse to change?
Big thoughts inspired from tiny little creatures.
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