Clickedy-clack

I gasped as I saw image after image of a round-cheeked baby girl. I minimized the window and returned to the chat program.

"Oh my God, she's absolutely adorable," I typed quickly. "How old is she now?"

Other baby-related questions flew out onto the screen from fingers that wouldn't allow the brain to fully register the words.

How were the first few months? Did she sleep throught the night? What are her little quirks? How are the Mommy and Daddy doing? What's it like to be a parent?

After about five minutes of back and forth with the proud parent on the other end of the connection, I paused and read back over our exchange.

This was beyond bizarre. I'm talking babies. With a peer.

Don't get me wrong: it's not as if I still view myself as a 21-year-old college kid most concerned about an indepth research paper. I'm fully aware of my 25-year-old-ness and the fact that when my mother was my age, she was a married woman with me around (joyously, of course, as I was the perfect child. If you ignore the rambunctious, possessive, self-centric character traits.) And each time my parents playfully remark on how they'd like to wind up with six grandchildren someday, to be split up between myself and my brother however we deem fit, any bit of me that tries to ignore my age is thoroughly trounced.

I suppose it was simply that I've been so busy dealing with rent, traveling (as relative as that is) and what I'd like to do with my life, surrounded predominantly with friends who are likewise doing the same, that I didn't fully recognize that friends from days gone by had taken on decidedly different projects.

The permanent kind - houses, spouses and babies. It's one thing to hear that So And So got married and is pregnant - it's another thing to catch up with an old friend and see their bubbly bundles of joy.

When did they make up their minds about things? How is it that they're ready to take care of new lives and I'm busy thinking about tackling the arduous process that would be balancing my checkbook?

And how is it that I can so quickly fall into the conversations that I remember hearing as a youngster, asking about things of which I have little or absolutely no knowledge whatsoever?