Capturing childhood

Sarah, age 9

Today I had a little panic moment when I realized something huge. 

My daughter is nine years old. 

NINE.

That might not sound significant all by itself...but I realized that my daughter's life at home is officially half-over. I only get to have her with me for nine more years until she's eighteen and moves away forever. That's not very long. I feel a mix of sadness (at the thought of missing her wonderful personality) and panic (have I taught her enough to prepare her to face the world on her own? Nope.). 

She was my first baby, my introduction to motherhood. (Does anyone else cringe with regret when they remember their first feeble attempts at parenting?) 

Poor girl. I pushed her too hard to hit milestones she wasn't ready for....I should have just cuddled her more and enjoyed her fleeting stages of babyhood. (I'm really good at enjoying babies now...in fact, I don't accomplish much else around here when Diego is awake. I can't rip myself away from him most of the time.)

I always wanted her to move on to the next development- I'd help her practice sitting, crawling, walking, eating. 

I was obsessed with growth charts and parenting books, worried about how she would compare. I drilled her with daily scripture memorization at the age of three. What kind of parent does that? 

Forget about silly child's board books that teach colors and numbers...I read the books of J. R. Tolkein aloud to her before she was one year old. All of them.

If she ever wanted a fruit snack, I'd make her recite the alphabet to earn it (when she was two). That was for one piece. 

Luckily for my boys, I think I've really learned to lighten up and enjoy life more. I'm a much funner mother now, and I don't care what charts say at all about developmental milestones. I laugh at the numbers that attempt to manage my parenting techniques (who are we kidding, I don't use 'techniques' anymore, I fly by the seat of my pants!).

Today when the boys came home, I said, "Anyone wanting a sugar-high can have a cookie for each hand! Do you pick Snicker doodles or Chocolate Crackle cookies or both?"

Today I felt driven to simply enjoy Sarah's disappearing childhood. We jumped on the trampoline together for recess (I haven't stepped onto our trampoline since I became pregnant with Diego....it's been a loooong time and boy was it fun!). 

This afternoon we played the Nail Polish Game. I have a very happy daughter today!

This is how it works: we take a bottle of nail polish and spin it on the floor (Done in 'Spin-the-Bottle' style). When it stops spinning, the lid points to the winner of the round. The winner paints one nail with the color. Then we pick a new color and spin it. We keep doing this until our nails are all painted with a rainbow. It's immensely fun. 

I like to add a white dot to each nail to bring a semblance of unity to the manicure. 

Quick note: If you are actually going to try this game, be sure to only use polishes of complementary colors {complementary as in 'look good together', not as in 'opposite the color wheel', although that would also work, I suppose} If the colors don't match intensity, it will look terrible. Deep burgundy might look sophisticated all by itself, but when it's juxtaposed with bright pink....that burgundy looks brown and drab and just...terrible. Don't do it.