The Girl already has the gift of a sibling, but she did not receive a younger sibling (and there are currently no plans in place to provide her with one). I look at her now and wonder how we could have possibly thought The Boy was sufficiently old enough to be a big brother at this tender age. She is becoming more and more a little girl with each passing day, but in my eyes she is still a baby.
She isn’t a baby by the traditional sense of the word, she can speak in sentences, she feeds herself (and is quite proficient with utensils), she walks, she runs, she assists with dressing herself, can climb up into the minivan and get up into her car seat without help, etc. She does still wear diapers, and has that one last hold out bottle before bed. Of course the bottle is mostly my thing I’ll admit; it is sort of nice that she loves that last bit of cuddle time with me before sleep. I see the “babies” at daycare and think that they are all so tiny in comparison, but yet when I get The Girl home she goes right back to baby status in my eyes. I wonder if she will always seem like my baby. Her brother will always be older than her, but I suppose he won’t always be more advanced than she is.
I have such a hard time dealing with the idea that these little kids of mine will become bigger kids, and then teenagers, and finally adults. It seems almost impossible that my kids will one day grow up and not live in the same house I do. They are like extensions of my heart, walking around in the world, and someday I am supposed to let them go out in the world all on their own? I’m sure I will blink and The Girl will be on the brink of 4, and then 14, and then 22. This is why I need to stop dwelling on the nighttime routine. I know that eventually The Girl won’t want me lying on her bedroom floor, and will in fact shut the door on me when I try to do so. For this moment I need to be grateful for the baby I have, and I need to remember to stop willing her to grow up faster than she already is. Besides, it is DH’s turn to put the kids to bed tonight! *wink*
3 comments:
oh heather! i can't believe how big the kids have gotten. where has the time gone? we have the same issue with dd #1. i won't lie-we've been laying on the floor with her for 2 yrs now. it used to bother me but i find that this is what works for us-so be it. i know it won't last forever and i try to cherish it while i can. hope all is well with you.
Ah! That was sweet.
I know, I still see E as a baby too. I don't know when that will stop. Even this morning, I saw G climbing the stairs and he just looked smaller for some reason (maybe b/c E wasn't around). There are times he seems so grown up and other times, I see this little boy whose head is still too big for his body!
Oh, and we still do the bottle at bedtime too!
I really enjoyed your photos and the family story. Babies do seem to grow up so fast. Just the other day I looked at CRB in his high chair and a toddler looked back!
P.S. Thanks for clearing up the whole "What is Austin?" mystery. He is totally a kangaroo, I don't know why I did not see that!
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