When fighting forest fires, many firefighters will actually set smaller brush fires in an effort to destroy potential fuel that could feed the larger fire.  This is called a backfire.  It seems painful and counterproductive but, in the end, is a time-tested method.

I educate you on the use of backfires so that I can deliver this story from this past weekend.  Jenn and I had a garage sale and we decided to sell a few unwanted items.  One of those that became very difficult to part with was Cooper’s baby set.  I swear it was literally yesterday afternoon when Cooper was born and maybe two or three days ago when Ryan was born.  As I look at pictures of the baby furniture and some of the toys that Cooper is “too old”to enjoy, I finally get what older parents have told me.  I remember being in the grocery store trying to wrestle Ry into the cart and this old man, in sort of a Hollywood moment, came up to me and said “Don’t worry, it’ll all be over before you realize it and you’ll look back and say ‘wow, that was way too fast.”