time flies


You hear parents saying it all the time, and I am just as guilty as most.... "Time flies." 

Something about having children seems to crank life up to warp speed. The days are long but the years are short and I can regularly be heard bemoaning the fact that another month flew by, or that this time last year feels like last week. I've long since accepted that a life that seems to speeding by at a hundred miles an hour, is just a symptom of being a parent... and the plus side is that is really seems to inspire me to cram as much fun into life as I possibly can.

So when I logged on to timehop today to see that on this day three years ago we announced we were expecting our beautiful girl to the world, I had that usual feeling of how time was slipping through my fingers like sand. But there was something else too... something that brought tears to my eyes, something that made me sit and watch that video again for what must be the hundredth time. 


There is something so incredibly strange about watching an earlier version of yourself. I recognise that girl, that family... but at the same time I don't. I watch it and I feel like I'm in on a secret that they have no idea about yet. They don't know yet that the baby they are talking about and thinking about and planning for, is going to be a little girl. They don't know how she is going to turn their lives upside down, but in the best way possible. It feels so strange watching the previous us, because we just had no clue. 

I remember making that video so vividly. I remember how Rich and I laughed hysterically while we took the photos for it. I remember how we struggled to get the cats to play along long enough to get them in on the action too. I remember how we roused a sleepy beautiful boy from his nap to take part in the last few photos we needed. I remember how excited we were, and how we were beginning to picture life as a four. 


But watching it back now it feels like another life. A life before our beautiful girl just, quite honestly, seems impossible to imagine now. We were dreaming and thinking and imagining and making little plans and picturing how it would be... but the reality was and continues to be so much more amazing than we ever could have predicted.

We never could have known when we invisaged our baby boy becoming a big brother, just how close our children would be. And what an utter joy it would be to watch them. We had a baby already and thought we knew what we signing up for, but our beautiful girl was and still is so different from her brother in every single way. And we are learning so much from raising him, and raising her, and raising them together.


I just look back at that announcement and I remember how excited we were... and looking back we just had no idea the enormous lump of amazing that was about to land in our laps. We couldn't have imagined it if we'd tried.

And that is why I'm so glad that I obsessively record our lives the way that I do. Those little flashes back in time are such a beautiful little gift to future versions of us. And when time flies the way it does, I'm so glad to be collecting all these memories of our simple, crazy, happy and beautiful little lives.

12 comments

  1. I can guess somewhat at how you must feel, as your little film nearly had me in tears too! You look so very happy, You must be very proud of your beautiful family!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Time really does fly. I love your birth announcement and could watch it over and over too. I only wish I had been blogging with both of mine to record all those early pregnancy months and moments and be able to announce it so fashionably. Although I kinda give you credit for one of the first now it seems almost crude if you haven't thought of a fancy way to do it via facebook, twitter, or a blog post or video. lol hahaha But I remember yours was one of the first I had seen and I was hooked. Its' great to record all your special memories for your family and especially because at this early stage they won't remember everything themselves but can subconsciously put it in their minds because they can recall that video over and over again or when they do go back and read your blog. It will be bittersweet memories to share. Lovely post. I got all teary, maybe I am just broody! hahaa Wait I am always broody what am I talking about. hahaha

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh Lucy. I didn't know you then. I have only really been watching your life unfold on your blog for the last 18 months or so but I have loved watching the bond between your children grow and that video brought tears to my eyes - your videos have come far in those three years but the sentiment is still as beautiful x

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow was it really three years ago? Where has all the time gone!? It's so lovely to be able to look back and want to prod your earlier self and say "psst it's going to be awesome!" And I know what you mean about feeling you can barely remember life without all four of you - it's the same for us only with five!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Aaah Lucy — what a gorgeous film! Amazing to see how your tiny boy has grown. He's a proper little man now! And I WISH I'd have been able to go back and tell myself, a few years ago, how things were going to pan out. That things were going to be OK and to keep my chin up because something magical was right around the corner. I don't think I would have believed it ‚ I'm still pinching myself to be honest. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world! x

    Caro | www.thetwinklediaries.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ahhhh I do love that video. It must have taken you so long to make it but it's so worth it.
    Sometimes I wish I had recorded my pregnancy with Harry the same way you did with BG, and I wish I'd written about his milestones more because *bad mummy alert* there is so much I have forgotten.
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ah I loved watching this again- I remember so vividly when you made it and I got a sneak preview- so exciting, it actually feels like yesterday. Time really does fly, I have just spent the last couple of hours clearing out LL's wardrobe ready to go into her new room, and I actually got tears in my eyes looking at all the tiny little things she has grown out of. xx

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is lovely and made me feel a little emotional! Time Hop is forever making a bit mournful about time going too quickly xx

    ReplyDelete
  9. So cute Lucy! And you are so unbelievably right about time being on fast forward the minute you become a parent! I'm expecting number 3 and am 28 weeks already and it honestly feels like this pregnancy is just flying by... its insane! Gorgeous picture of the four of you at the top too! xx

    ReplyDelete
  10. I can't even believe how quickly time goes these days, a week goes by in what feels like a minute. Love these photos, it's so interesting to look back and see how you've all changed! x

    ReplyDelete
  11. Gorgeous, gorgeous! Time really does fly by, I remember watching that video when you first published it and can't believe how much has changed since then. xx

    ReplyDelete
  12. I just can't believe that was 3 years ago, i remember watching that pregnancy announcement like it was yesterday. Time really does pass in the blink of an eye, it scares me sometime just how quickly our babies are growing up! xxx

    ReplyDelete

Back to Top