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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Sustaining Six




Grace is nearly 7. It frightens me, how very quickly she has matured and grown in this last year.

Every parent with small children comments on how fast they grow. Like lightning, they've changed before your eyes. It leaves you breathless.

Experienced parents look on children in line at the grocery store and urge weary parents to enjoy it, because it's over so quickly.

And it is.

There is something that happens, between 6 and 7. Something new. Something sad, something wonderful.

She's so tall. So mature. So boney when we try to fit her lanky body on my lap. The squeezable baby fat that has been slowly disappearing for years is all gone.

She swoons over Gilbert Blithe, and creates art to express her moods.

She's just, so decidedly older. Still young, of course, but Oh, I know the baby I knew is slipped away and she's becoming something new.

So this week, especially, I feel like doing all I can to sustain six. To hold it as long as we can.

1 comment:

Shelby-Grace said...

My little one just turned 7 at the end of last month...and it seems to me that it was not that long ago that I held all of her in my arms and thought she'd never get any bigger. Oh how the time flies by!