Our Days Together are Numbered

On a typical Thursday, after the big kids head off to school, I would sit at my desk to write, with a cup of coffee, of course. That means that Marshall plays with his toys alone while he waits for me to finish. I can be pretty quick on most days, but on others, I write and read and re-read and re-write until I'm sure my story is exactly right. (Is that perfectionism? I guess today's post is a lesson in that, too).

Since many of my readers felt so impacted by my last post: Failure: I'm Over it and Going to Yoga, I've decided that this Thursday, I'm going to write a short post and relax with Marshall all morning. We have had such a hectic week, and when I took him out to lunch with me on Tuesday, I realized something.

I realized that our days together are numbered. The days when just the two of us sit together at our favorite café or the bagel shop or McDonald's, while all of his big sibs are off doing their school thing, are not going to last forever. It made me so incredibly sad.

Marshall's still only four. His birthday is not for a few more months, but while we were eating lunch, he performed a little trick in which he attempted to speed up time. He dipped a French fry in ketchup. Then, he turned it upside down and back into the ketchup, so that the first ketchup-y side would be sticking up into the air.

He was pretending it was a fiery birthday candle, and he said, "Mom, I'm five now! It's my birthday, and I'm five!" He wanted me to sing to him and agree that he was five for the rest of the day.

That's when it all hit me. He is almost five. Five means Kindergarten. He's going to leave the comforts of our stay-at-home-days very soon. Then, he'll be one of the big kids, too.

I've been taking him to the elementary school with me this week for some events I've been coordinating. Many of the teachers thought he was a kindergartener or first grader, and they kept asking him, "Where are you supposed to be?" Have I ever mentioned that he's a giant? So tall, that kid! Except he didn't belong in that big school. He was overwhelmed and crying most of the time.

So, for this Thursday, while it's still very early in the morning, I'm telling you that I plan to spend all of today's fleeting time with my giant four-year-old who wishes he was five.

 

 

Thank you, as always, for reading and sharing and coming back for more. What are you going to do with your babies who wish they were bigger today? What about the big kids who you wish were smaller?

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