My oldest child turns nine tomorrow. It's sort of crept up on me. The last nine years that is. How did this happen? How can she already be this old? Mercifully, she is ridiculously short and will probably remain so for some time, so I can preserve some something. If and when she is ever taller than me I don't know what I'll do.
On the whole I feel bad for her, being the first child. We seem to figure out each stage just after she has gone through it. All the little pack of people behind her are probably, from my current angle, having an easier time of it because we finally catch on after she had laid the ground. Oh well, I'm sure it will occur to her to blame us later so I won't worry about that right now.
So, today I'm making a birthday cake and some other stuff and maybe I'll clean the house, and I'm also going to go buy her a pocket knife, because that's what she wants. A child of frugal and attainable tastes and basically, for the most part, focused on other people, and on Jesus, and basically pretty obedient, most of the time, and also totally and unbearably silly.
Fast forward to 9:21 to see the little bit the really well encapsulates Elphine. Heh heh.
6 comments:
I, too, feel sorry for my oldest-- all the things I thought were character flaws (well, maybe not ALL) turned out to developmental stages. Whoops.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY dearest E. Nine years old? I remember Day One, and you get more YOU every day, and even more loverly and wonderful. Missing you like crazy,
Nonni in Kenya
"We seem to figure out each stage just after she has gone through it." <-Man, I hear you here!
Having for the most part skipped merrily through the detritus of parenting catastrophes visited on my older siblings, I should have passed on the good fortune to my own first-born. Alas, too often it's just been messy and mutually frustrating. The younger ones take their luck for granted! I just have to keep hoping that love covers a multitude of sins. Parental acumen and patience I lack, but I sure do love my children.
I know of someone who refers to her eldest as her "practice baby."
My mother-in-law has apologized to me, half-jokingly, for "ruining" her first-born, my husband. I'm also an oldest child and I wasn't irreparably damaged, so I don't worry about it.
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