It will not always be like this. Soon enough their schedule will fill up. Their interests will change. The demands will increase. They will grow out of it.

It will be gone.

We quoted Ezra Klein a few weeks ago talking about the almost transcendent pleasure of playing and watching his young son play Angry Birds. No one has ever had more fun, he said, no one has ever found a game funnier than his three year old. And for “Angry Birds” we can plug in so many of the things we get to do with our kids at various ages–from jumping in the pool to jumping on our backs, to rolling around in the dirt to making up silly songs and talking in goofy voices.

The thing is though…it doesn’t last. Not forever.

“I have a 3- and a 5-year-old,” Ezra explained. “One day I’ll have a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old. And according to the testimony of every other older parent I know, I will wish they wanted to sit around playing ‘Angry Birds’ and have me take them to the playground all day..”

This is your window. This is the time. However old they are, whatever the activity is. Do it now. As we said before, it will all be past tense soon. As the National song we quoted then goes, “Between you and me / I thought it would last a little while longer.” The unfortunate truth about being a parent is that it will not last as long as we wish.

Take it while you can.