Where's she going?

It hit me today just how grown-up Daphne is getting. It was the first successful day of shoe-wearing for her...and seeing her in those brown Mary-Janes looking so full-fledged, almost brought tears to my eyes. Where has my baby gone? For some reason the fact that she has been walking like a pro for over two months didn't do it to me; she still looked so babyish in her little bare feet. I had tried to get her to wear shoes a few times, but she would have no part of it. She'd curl up her toes in resistance and with the warm-weather I didn't mind the cute exposed toesies. She would even walk beside me in the aisles of the grocery store unshod and happy; but she always appeared to me nothing more than an infant ahead of her time. Today was different. When we got home from soccer practice this evening, I lifted her out of her carseat and placed her on her little feet. As I watched her follow her two older sisters into the house, my eyes fixated on the hem of her baggy sweatpants covering all but the toe of her little shoe. I couldn't help but think, "Alas, there goes my baby." She's going, going, and almost gone.