When did I push the fast forward button?

In each of my boys' infant lives, there has been a moment when I looked at his face and, for a second, saw the boy that the baby would soon become.

For Nate it was in the car one day, as we drove home from Gramma's house after work. I looked in the rear view mirror and suddenly, instead of the baby I was so familiar with, I saw a little boy looking back at me. It was only for a second, when the light was hitting his face just right.  But it was there. The next moment he was back to being my baby, but sure enough, as he grew up and matured, I saw that little boy emerging day by day.

With Nile, although I can't remember it precisely, it was a similar fleeting moment.  It could have been a photograph, but I won't ever remember. We lost all the pictures from when Nile was a baby in the Great Computer Crash of 2009, and with it went some of my memories, unfortunately.

With Novak, I didn't think I had had that moment where I saw the boy that my baby would become.

But when I was going through pictures on my phone, I suddenly realized that I had.  Right here, right in this picture, I found my moment with Novak.  In this picture, he doesn't look like my baby.  He looks like a boy.

I know it's been said by moms since time began, so this isn't an original thought.  I will definitely not be the last one to say it, either.  But if I could only slow down time just a little, I would.  He's growing up too fast. :(