I was in the grocery store a couple of days ago, and had one of those “Dad” moments that sort of rocks your world for a couple of days.

Walking through the store, in a little bit of a hurry, I was just zipping along and being annoyed because they’ve rearranged things AGAIN and where the hell’s the damned soymilk?!

As I turned a corner I nearly bumped into a guy about my age, carrying a young boy on his hip and a grocery basket in the other hand. They were clearly enjoying some dad/son time – the boy was about 5 and since the dad was holding boy in one hand and basket in the other, they had made a game out of the dad telling his son which item to grab off the shelf, and the boy would intentionally grab the wrong one, and they would laugh. Or just as the boy was about to grab the box, the dad would step back from the shelf so the boy couldn’t reach it anymore and they would laugh. Simple, fun, turning a mundane task into some quality giggle time.

As I watched this moment, I felt my annoyance at not having found the soymilk slipping away, and I found myself getting a little sad as I realized that another kid milestone is here, and I hadn’t even noticed it.

I think the time of carrying my kids on my hip is just about gone.

Maggie’s 10, and she’s just too big to carry on my hip for any length of time anymore. And Max is following shortly behind. I mean, sure, I can CARRY them – but now it takes some effort. It’s no longer possible to carry them AND a bag of groceries AND still find my keys and get the doors opened – carrying them is a singular task now! I have, thankfully, a couple years left of being able to carry them in, sleeping, after a late car ride home from somewhere. I love that time, when they’re out cold, but as you pick them up from the backseat they wrap their arms and legs around you, and snuggle their nose into your neck. That, and piggy back rides are still a staple of our lives… but even those will start to fade away over the next few years as they grow into that phase of “Less time with parents = good!”.

No, this isn’t a world-ending event. Yes, there are still lots of wonderful things I share with my kids – we invent raps on a regular basis, we share secret handshakes, snuggle time and ice cream time and family game night and movie night and a dozen other things that HOPEFULLY will turn into memories they can hang onto as they grow older… but growing older is just what’s happening.

Today, I picked up my 8-year old and held him several times. Just picked him up and carried him around for a bit, goofing around. And when I did, he would wrap himself around me, and snuggle into my neck.

I suppose I’ll let go when I have to…

…but I’m gonna hold on as long as I can.