Growing up

I keep meaning to post here about Delaney turning four and all the ways in which she's growing up. And I will, but a post like that deserves more attention that I can give it now. Instead I'm going to jot a quick list about both Delaney and Waylon because if I don't do it now I'll forget and if I do that I'll never forgive myself.

Delaney

She asked me today when she's going to have a baby. I told her not until she's a grown up lady like me. Then she said, "How long will I be a girl for, then?" "A long, lovely time," I told her.

These days you can just see the wheels cranking in her sweet head as she contemplates everything around her and she asks questions when she's just not sure why something is the way it is.

The other day she wanted to know if it hurts a skeleton when he gets stabbed in the ribs. I suppose she's been watching too much of The Corpse Bride again. Parenting FAIL.

The other day while playing with an old phone in the garage she told her dad, "Bob Marley's on the phone. He wants to know what color he should paint your walls." And here I never knew ol' Bob was a painter, nor that our walls needed painting.

It seems silly to say it but on the day she turned four she just seemed OLDER, more mature, even more inquisitive (is that possible?). I'm glimpsing, each day, the girl she'll grow into and, while I'm sad to see her baby-ness fade, it's thrilling to watch her blossom.

Waylon

His vocabulary grows larger by the day. Favorite words include: juice, ball, plane, grapes, cookies, Daney (Delaney, of course!), Daddy, Mommy, dog, eyes, toes, trash, bird, kitty, splash, skeem (scream!).

He doesn't ever say the word "no" but he shakes his head vehemently. There's never any mistaking what he means. Waylon does not = ambivalence.

He was very, terribly sick last week and he had a hard time nursing so he flat out avoided it for a few days. Now we're unexpectedly on the fast track to weaning which makes me both happy and sad. Happy because after two years of pregnancy and nursing I'll get my body back as well as my freedom to leave him with his dad or a sitter for longer periods. Sad because he is my last baby and the mother/baby bond while nursing is so special, so perfect and I'll really miss that. But he's ready and I am too. Just like every other aspect of parenting, this is bittersweet.

Comments

[Christina]

I can totally relate to all of this!

Julian barely says anything still, but his "uh-uh" while shaking his head is unmistakable! He too had taken to weaning himself sooner than I was ready. He is down to once or twice a night now - once before bed and sometimes he gets up once at night for it. I'm really going to miss the snuggle time!

[karen]

Four-year-old Lars sticks in my head because that was the year his personality really emerged. Almost every day now, I see a glimmer of his four-year-old self in something he does and it makes me at once wistful and proud.

Ross' personality never emerged - he's been himself since before he was born (heaven help us all...).

[much more than a mom]

I can relate! You'll be glad you wrote even this. Our mom brains forget this stuff too easily, unfortunately.

New here via twitter...if you reply via email to comments, remind me to ask you about that silhouette in your header...don't want to ask here in case it's perceived as rude. ;-)