You're how old???

I've had an interesting revelation lately...I'm getting older. It's not that I've been ignoring my birthdays for the past decade. Or the laugh lines and wrinkles that keep popping up all over my face. It's just that I'm still in the same stage of life and not much has changed so I forget that the rest of the world is moving on around me.

I've come to this staggering conclusion several times over the past few months. The first was when I ran into one of the children I was a nanny for when I first moved to Dallas. Sarah Catherine was only 11 years old when I first met her. She was this tiny little girl who had big innocent eyes and was trying to find her way in this big world and live up to her big name. When I ran into her at the restaurant I was working for a few months ago, I was speechless. She is now this grown woman who is a freshman at Vanderbilt and has all the confidence in the world. Where did the time go? Oh yeah, that was 10 years ago...

Then I had lunch with an old co-worker yesterday whose daughter I used to babysit. He was telling me she is about to graduate from high school and go off to Baylor. Sic'em Bears! But seriously...she's graduating? Even the kids I grew up babysitting back in East Texas are all married and having kids now. And my nephew is about to turn five. 5!!!!! That just doesn't seem possible. I still remember going to visit him in the NICU every day for the first month of his life. And look at him now...

All of this "growing up" around me has made me wonder if I need to grow up a little more. I am a firm believer in being a child at heart and knowing how to have fun (even as an adult). But perhaps now that I'm in my 30's, I may need to stop wearing my "Kiss Me I'm Irish" t-shirts and act my age. :) After all, I am starting to look it!