Today we were driving along and passed the farm near our house that often has sheep roaming the fields. A few weeks ago, we noticed several teeny baby lambs, and we always look for them when we drive by.

Today when we went by, the sheep were out. I said to D, “Look at all the sheep out today!”

He took a look and said after a minute, “I don’t see the babies.”

I took another look and realized that in just a few short weeks, those teeny baby lambs had grown and were now just little lambs. So I explained how they had been growing and they aren’t as little as they used to be, that the smaller sheep he saw were those baby lambs. I said, “Don’t you remember how little R was just a few months ago? And now she is a big baby.”

A few minutes went by, and then out of the blue D said, “So are we growing and don’t even know it?”

I said, “Yes! Exactly. You are growing all the time, but it happens so slowly you don’t even notice.” Then I pointed out that we are not all growing, Mommy and Daddy aren’t growing anymore.

He was surprised by this. “Why not?” he asked. I explained that when you get to be a grown-up, you stop growing. He seemed satisfied by this.

Isn’t it funny, though, the things we as adults take for granted, but children don’t realize until we explain it to them. I guess he thought we keep growing forever!