Our family made a quick run to the local Barnes & Noble bookstore last night so I could buy “The Facebook Effect” for the book club my employer, the David All Group, is hosting on, wait for it, Facebook.

After finding my book, I wandered back to the children’s section to see what our kids were doing. The older two, the ones who know how to read, were looking at their favorite series of books; our youngest, 5-year-old Catie, was at the “Thomas & Friends” station.

That’s when it hit me that our last toddler won’t be a toddler much longer. She starts her first full year of school at the Glover Home School this week, and soon she’ll be reading and shopping for books. She won’t have any interest in the “Thomas & Friends” display at Barnes & Noble that has been a part of our family for the past decade.

Kimberly and I used to fuss over which of us would stay at the station to watch the kids play while the other shopped for books. Now that my baby is about to be a big girl, I wish I had spent more time with all of the kids. I blinked, and now those days are almost gone forever.

I’m thinking we should make Barnes & Noble a regular stop over the next year or so. I’ll let Kimberly shop for books the whole time while I enjoy my baby girl before she gets too big to care about Thomas and his locomotive friends.