One of those things you hear before you’re a parent – and you wish parents would stop saying all the time – is how quickly the time goes. It starts during the pregnancy, “You just wait, the 9 months are going to fly by!” and continues through each developmental phase your child goes through, “You just wait, he’s going to be crawling/eating solids/walking/talking before you know it!”

The reason parents talk about time all the, umm, time is because it does go by so quickly. This past year has flown by for me, and I can’t believe how different my life is now than it was at this time last year. At this time last year, I was a single parent, I was starting a new job, I was trying to settle into a city that I hadn’t lived in in more than a decade, and I was trying to help my son adjust to our new lives. Now, I’m engaged to a man who has easily slipped into the role of “father” for my son, I love my job and feel like I’m not the new girl anymore, I can get in the car and drive without getting lost, and my son knows where all the important things are (grandparents’ houses, his school, the library, etc.). Life is very good and very different.

Tonight was a perfect illustration of that difference. We had planned to have dinner with my fiance’s family so after work I rushed home to get out of my heels (super cute, super uncomfortable) and throw on some cooler clothes. On our way to the restaurant, my pager went off. Dang it! A call from a reporter that an interview had been scheduled with a patient. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a big deal, except that we were in one car, were late for dinner already, and Nicholas was starving (and had to pee “very bad”).

Had this situation come up last year, I would have either had to hope the daycare at my hospital could take N as a drop-in for a couple hours, or turn the car around and take him to a grandparent, or asked my sister-in-law to meet me at the hospital to watch him. None of those things lend themselves to me being a very responsive media liaison. Instead, because William was with us (and fully comfortable and capable with N), they dropped me off at the hospital and went on to eat while I worked.

The feeling of having someone I can depend on so completely is still very new. William still reminds me that I don’t have to ask him to get N a drink or to take him to the bathroom…that N is just as much his son now as he is mine. And, yes, there have been times when I’ve had to stop myself from saying, “But that’s not how we do it!” And, yes, there have been times when I’ve been a little jealous if Nicholas lets William do something for him that I usually do. But for the majority of the last year, I’ve been thankful and appreciative.

What a difference a year makes.