The Best Laid Plans and a Then and Now

You should know I mean to blog, really I do. I'll get all comfy with the computer, I'll click over to my blog and then the inevitable happens. I start to read everyone else's posts and updates on their lives. I blog stalk people by linking through friends and read what's happening in the lives of those I don't even know. Before I know it (meaning several blog posts that aren't mine, people.com, facebook, and missed episodes of gg and glee later) I'm too tired to blog. But, I know you'll forgive me, especially when I share this little gem with you.

Recognize her?

If not, I'm sure that sweet belly gave it away. This is my girl, at the tender baby age of 8 months. She had just learned to crawl, she was battling a nasty cold, she wasn't sleeping through the night, and she didn't have all her teeth. That was my girl, then, at our beloved Fall Fair last September.

I know the time is flying by, but I don't realize it so much in the day to day. Until I look at photos like that and compare it to the photos I took this weekend when our little family of three headed back out to that fair on a beautifully crisp Saturday.

This is my girl, now. A year older, a lot taller and with enough hair for pigtails and bows.

Now, she's old enough to ride the pony.

Patient enough barely to sit still for her first face painting.

Young enough to still love her balloons, but old enough to ask for them by name, well sort of. "YOON!"

Now, my heart skips a beat when I watch her run...

and jump feet first to land on her bottom, pigtails flying.

And yes, my eyes water just a little bit.

When I realize that was then.

And this is now.