Well, her first birthday has come and gone, and she's walking. Not proficiently, but she's walking. She's on her way. And all the clichés about how having a baby makes time fly are true, so shockingly true that I've had to investigate the phenomenon. There's just no way that a whole year has gone by. Someone pressed fast-forward when we weren't looking. And considering her fascination with remote controls, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Tess herself. (It has to be.)

Aristotle guessed that time is the measure of the motion of the cosmos. Much later, Immanuel Kant suggested that our minds perceive time as an infinite mathematical line. But to me, the one explanation of time that feels the most true comes from Albert Einstein: "Space and time are modes by which we think, not conditions under which we live."

A-ha! So, maybe there really is a fast-forward button, and it controls perception. There's no doubt in my mind that time awareness changes once you're a parent. Maybe as we observe the subtle daily changes in a baby and the achievement of larger developmental milestones and so forth, our own mature lives seem to stand still in comparison. Like watching a train go by. Our focus is more outward, away from the changes in ourselves that our subconscious normally uses as a measuring stick for the passing of time. Hey, I don't know. I'm just clutching at straws to help explain how Tess can suddenly dismantle a bookshelf and laugh about it, when just yesterday, it seems, she didn't know what her legs were. Hey kid: hand me that remote and slow down, will ya?