They grow up so fast.

That’s the sentiment most people have when you have kids.

I didn’t realize just how true that was until I became a mother, and my kids didn’t realize just how true it was until we found a robin nest in our tree outside our home earlier this month.

The kids discovered the nest one evening when they were checking the growth of their sunflowers. As they approached their little garden, a robin began squawking.

They soon looked up and yelled, “A nest!”

Since the tree was only planted about two years ago, the nest was easily seen from the ground, but mama bird was definitely a smart cookie. She chose our little tree, a weeping cherry, as her brood’s home, but not only that, she carefully constructed the nest right in the base of the branches where they meet the trunk. It was a perfect place to hide from predators, while still providing shade and shelter.

As mama robin flew across the street, we peeked in the nest and found that three baby blue eggs had been laid.

Over the next few days, we would periodically check to see if there were any babies and the parent robins watched (and squawked) at us from their perch across the street.

On July 8, we noticed that a miracle had happened. Three tiny baby robins poked their beaks up to the sky, chirping for a meal.

Life in our tree had officially begun.

Over the next few days, I documented the growth of the babies, from newborns who looked more like little aliens with bulging eyes behind skin until the last one left home.

The process was fascinating not only for our kids, but for my husband and I as well.

The birds seemed to grow in years every few days, changing from featherless lumps to young adults in a blink of an eye.

The whole process from hatching to jumping and starting their next phase of life lasted 10 days.

The last robin to jump mocked me slightly (like I’m sure our children will do in their teenage years), standing proudly on the edge of the nest, looking over the world before taking the leap into the unknown. The kids and I even witnessed that.

But after its leap, it showed its true colors of a teenager and jumped from the safety of the yard, over to a bush and then tumbled off the curb, right onto the road. The problems began when it couldn’t get back up on the curb.

For the next five minutes, I chased the little lanky ball up and down the street as it fluttered clumsily around, trying to get it back up the curb while the parents flapped and squawked (and I think laughed their little birdy butts off) at me. I know my kids did.

Finally, the baby was safely in the grass and life went on.

The whole experience was a good lesson for our family because it showed just how quickly life goes by.

In a matter of two weeks, from the time we discovered the nest until it now sat empty, we watched and learned and witnessed true miracles.

I don’t know how my husband and I would deal with our kids changing as quickly as those baby birds.

We already feel that every time we blink that they are taller, more mature and closer to leaving our nest.

Thank God human children don’t grow as quickly as bird babies do.