This year, my Pesach lists were way off. It’s the third consecutive year my husband’s family has made Pesach all together. As the self-appointed list girl—and the one who's had to either throw out the extras or shlep them home—I thought I finally got the quantities perfect.

But then we ran out of cucumbers… before Yom Tov even started. Okay, so we were serving Pesach food from Wednesday. But how could that have happened?

Finally, we realized that this year, everybody is just older. And not just a year older with bigger appetites—but in completely different stages. The crawling babies who flung food off their high chairs are now young toddlers who finish full plates (when chased with a fork!). The kids who were asleep by 8 pm joined every night meal. And there's now a bunch of perpetually hungry preteens.

Kids just enter different stages, and it happens so subtly that you don’t really realize it until something like an annual milestone comes along, and suddenly you see how much they’ve grown.

From just one year to the next, your family can have such different dynamics. I have super cute photos of my kids wearing matching Seder pajamas (frogs, then matzah). But although we had matching pj's this year too, my oldest (now 8) put on a white shirt. Soon he'll stop matching his siblings altogether.

Everything really is just a stage.

Keep that in mind whether you’re really struggling in your current season or really enjoying it. As King Shlomo knew, the one constant in life is change. This too shall pass, for better or for worse. And when Yom Tov or a milestone rolls around, you can look back and see how much you and your family have grown.