Growing up.
At different times of my life these two words have had vastly different meanings. The last few months I feel like I personally have grown up a lot. Until someone in your own immediate circle like a similarly aged family member or very close friend has a life threatening event or dies I think we mistakenly feel like life is definitely going to be long. When something happens so very close to you with someone you have spend important parts of your life with this outlook suddenly changes. My ‘baby’ cousin was diagnosed with breast cancer around Christmas time. We are only four years apart. It seems like her outlook is good and the course of action will kick cancers butt. There was still that initial reaction, plus the lack of guarantee her treatments will work for sure. I have faith and hope the outcome will be wonderful. I envision us doing our annual cruise together next year with the warm sun all around us as we tackle some fun new adventure or just explore along a beach.
{Amber with her youngest of 3 daughters}
But still…
Now I make more time for snuggling with the kids, and have made sure to cut off work to spend time with the family on days Guy is home. We have always valued our family time. We love to spend time together. Playing with the kids making funny noises, chasing and tickles is a daily part of our life. Hopefully, it is a daily tradition we can continue long after the normal age where kids do not like to be around their parents.
Because…
They are growing up. Each of our children has gained much maturity of late. The big kids carry on thoughtful conversations as they continually map out their world around them and how all of the pieces of life come together. Our baby is losing his little baby face morphing into the cheeky toddler.
Madison still wishes to be a princess and marry a prince, but now she also wants to be a photographer as she is starting to recognize the value of work in life. She is much more helpful around the house with less complaining too. Every day she comes up with an outfit to wear based on her mood. Sometimes I let the whacky tacky look be her suit of armor for the day. Other times I coach her into a more pleasing match or weather appropriate outfit. This girl is an artist who will draw image after image one after another for over an hour. Each scene will have it’s own story or plot. She loves to show of her work looking for glowing approval at her brilliance.
Blake is our responsible man in the making with a very emotional side. He looks forward to waking early enough to crawl into bed with me and snuggle. He offers to do the 30 second back scratch as a way to make mommy extra happy. He’s also hoping mommy will rub his back for a while basking in the individual attention. We lost him at Disney world in January. We had Karissa watch the other kids as we each headed out in search of him. Around the 15 minute mark our friend, Molly, found him happily chatting with a Disney employee. He knew who to find once he couldn’t find us. This was a fantastic moment for him to really show us how smart our little 4 year old is! Blake is looking forward with single minded ness to being just like his daddy and tries to do everything the way he does.
Landon bug is a happy bug. He has no interest in potty training much to my disappointment. He will have no choice in July though! 🙂 The kid thinks babysitters are his own personal bonuses in life as he most often eagerly heads off with them. This week he has been boinging around the house much like a little joey kangaroo. Working with electronics must be his calling in life as I’ve never seen a kid so in love with anything phone, notepad, TV, movie or other electronic. His brain is a homing device eagerly noticing and claiming the nearest electronic. So far he has figured out how to work any electronic not password protected of ours plus any friend or clients have. It’s quite amazing to watch him intuitively poke around devices as he gets the type of program he wants working. We have ALL of ours password protected, but he still figures out how to get onto my emergency calling so he can activate the numbers screen. The Wiggles are his very favorite show too. Me thinks we are in trouble.
Its all the little and big moments in our lives. Spending time with those that matter to us most is how we make life so very worth while. Growing up isn’t so bad after all. I know we’ll encounter more sorrow, more disappointment, more love, more laughter and more spiritual moments. Each step of the way our lives will be enriched as will our compassion, knowledge, skills and love.