in march bella will be nine. that means half of her time with us will be done. and in the half we have left, we will see her less and less every year as she becomes more mature, independent and able. and when she turns eighteen and goes off to college, i imagine we'll see less of her for the rest of our lives than we have seen of her up to that point.

some people accuse me of thinking about parenting and fatherhood and the fleeting nature of it all more often than i should. to them i nod in agreement but in truth, i don't believe i think about it nearly enough.