When you feel like you have to move move move. Get it done, get to the next place, and your hurrying the world along. Or at least you are trying to.
Sometimes it's when you are trying to make dinner, and all she wants to do is help you do it. She wants to stir, or see, or help. And all you want is to get it done...
These moments- childhood is slipping away. The teaching moment, the enjoyable moment. The moments to see her for who she is, and what she's becoming. Because she's growing up in these moments. When you are worried about overcooking the sauce, she's learning how she should behave in the kitchen. She's learning about why you make dinner- for the family, for her father...for an obligation?
I'm constantly amazed at how much she grasps, changes and grows each and everyday. How she learns to communicate, share and become the girl she is growing up to be.
I want her to be strong, proud, and eager. I want her to take life by the hands and giggle. I don't want to tell her not to get dirty before dinner- I want her to explore the world, and not worry about the laundry. But it's hard.
It's oh so hard....
They are moving faster than the speed of light it seems. Just yesterday I would swear that Ocho was born, and yet here she is, moving, growing, learning, reacting. Here they both are, becoming the sisters I've always wanted them to be. Kind, thoughtful, imaginative. Turning towards each other for fun, games, and frivolity. But also when things are hard. Caring, growing, concerned. Helping each other through the rough times that can happen in life.
How do they learn these things? It's those moments when I'm trying to hurry up. When we need to get dressed to get out of the house- when I would rather be by myself than reading her another story (or the same one for the 15th time). When it seems easiest just to cut my losses and run. They are learning. How to treat each other, how to deal with set-backs. How to be who they will be.
And though it seems impossible, each moment is one we can't get back. Each moment they get one step closer to adults and further away from children. Ocho is closer to being one than she is to being born. And it's amazing.
It's watching her remember something for the first time. It's seeing her light-up at the sight of her daddy or her sister. It's helping her understand that just because I'm not with her, I still love her, I'm still with her in her heart.
It's teaching them both that they can't take back these moments. It's helping them see the beauty and the grace in everyday obligations. Helping them see that childhood is leaving, so we better hurry up and enjoy the moment.
All photos the work of Laura Layera, Luluphoto.
You are experiencing what every good parent realizes at some point, and you articulate it well for us. So did whoever wrote this once popular song:
ReplyDeleteWhere are you going, my little one, little one?
Where are you going, my baby, my own?
Turn around and you're two, turn around, and you're four,
Turn around and you're a young man going out of my door.
Where are you going, my little one, pretty one?
Little sunsuits and petticoats, where have you gone?
Turn around and you're tiny, turn around and you're grown,
Turn around and you're a young wife with babes of your own.