E: “Mama? I think that I am six already.”
M: “What’s that?”
E: “Yeah, I think I should already be six, because I can already read and write all kinds of stuff, and I don’t even need your help. So it is like I’m six already, right?”
Right. Oh, boy.
So, we were in church on Sunday. And she is still just a little bit too short to prop her elbows on the back of the pew when we are kneeling, so she puts a few hymnals down to kneel on for that optimal praying position. The lady behind us was giggling at her perched precariously on top of two hymnals and then she asked Em, “How old are you?”
“Oh, I’m 5 and a half, but I turn 6 on April 9th!” Em said so proudly. And then? The lady made the mistake of saying, “Oh, really? I thought you were at least 7 or 8. You are so tall and your printing is so nice and neat!” (She was writing letters to Daddy during part of mass.)
Cripes. Emma was beaming. “Mama! She thinks I am 7 or 8! Wow! And I’m only 6. Well, I’m almost 6!”
I threatened right then that I was going to put the hymnals on her head to make her stop growing.
I’m not quite sure what is going on around here lately. I find myself just watching the girls, or staring at photos of them and wondering, “How in the world did we get here?” “Where did my little girls go?”
And don’t say I am yearning for a baby, because I so am NOT. I am not even really nostalgic for, or missing when the girls were babies, necessarily. I love the ages and stage we are at right now. I love our little family and it just feels right. It feels complete.
I am not really sure what I am feeling. I guess I just want them to slow down. I can’t keep up with all of their milestones, their funny stories, or antics. I feel like the days are just slipping through my fingers, along with all of their youth and innocence.
I feel like I am going to wake up tomorrow, and they are both going to be packing to leave for college.
And now? Em wants her haircut. I got mine cut yesterday and she can’t stop playing with it and telling me how she wants hers cut short, too.
I love her hair. I’m trying so hard to remember that it is her hair, but tell me she isn’t going to look even more like she is 7 or 8 with a short little bob, than she would with her ribbons and pigtails?
