Friday, April 27, 2012

The World Of Ice-Cream, Love-Notes & Gangly Legs




7 Quick Takes is back being hosted by Jennifer over at Conversion Diary so when your'e finished here pop on over and have a look at some of the other great blogs linked up there this week. If you're wondering where to start, check out Kelly over at her blog  This Ain't The Lyceum, I think it must be one of the funniest blogs on the internet.  My husband laughed so much at the post just linked and if any of you have ever been puked on you just might relate. My own dear husband recognised himself in the husband who bewilderedly strolls in offering help after the said puke has been cleaned up.

Well anyway, this week I have been appreciating the pleasures of middle-childhood.  You know in any family, big or small, a lot of the focus tends to go on the older ones who are hewing the furrow because everything is new and scary for them and for you...or the youngest one...because nothing is new or scary and they are there to be delighted in. When our second youngest was about three or four and looked like he was destined to forever remain the youngest I remember telling him one day

 "You know, Peter, God made you the youngest, so that means your job is to be cuddled"

He was very cuddly, and still is, though sometimes (like that moment) he probably was thinking more along the lines of playing lego.

Now a new little girl has been given the God-appointed task of being the cuddlee, and it's now her who doesn't get too many moments where she can escape the barrage of kisses and cuddles from her older siblings and her no longer scared parents.

So this week I am going to give a few reasons why Middle Childhood is a treasure which passes in a moment that seems like the lifespan of a May-fly.


 Here's To The Perfect Years Of Middle-Childhood


--- 1 ---

You know those years after toddler-hood and before teenage where you live in another plane of existence from adults.  Where parents and their friends are to be pitied because their lives are so boring because they have no toys and watch the News.  Where the Den in the trees is more important than the HHS Mandate, where the speed of your roller blades is more important than the financial crisis and  where the world is safe because Mum and Dad know everything.

I love those years.

They are the foundation.


--- 2 ---

I love when the tinkling melody of the ice-cream van brings them running full of hope and confidence that this time they'll be handed a crisp 'blue paper 20' to treat their friends. Because the last four times they've been shown the empty purse and because they saw you take that 20 out of the ATM just this morning and they know they've been good and that you have promised them a treat


And I really love the happiness that only ice-cream can bring...



--- 3 ---

I love when the promise of 'I'll count' can convince them to do any job.

--- 4 ---

I love that there's still room on my knee for gangly legs and pointy boned bottoms even though at times my lungs feel like they're being crushed and my blood supply feels like it's about to be cut off with 11 year old weight but that the discomfort is diminished by the delight of knowing that they still want to be there

--- 5 ---

I love that they are reading The Little House on The Prairie and Malory Towers which I know to be safe and wholesome and that I don't have to spend the same time researching and studying them as I do with The Hunger Games and whatever other literature the culture throws at the teen market.


--- 6 ---

I love going to bed at night more often than not to find sweet home-made cards and love notes...



I never throw them out  ♥

--- 7 ---

And I love creeping in to tuck them in at night and when I lean over to kiss their sleeping foreheads, I get the soft warm smell that reminds me that even if their ankles keep becoming visible a week after I have purchased new jeans, even if they are happy to spend endless hours out of my sight playing with their friends among the trees and even if before I blink they will be grown...they are still my babies.

And I remind myself

"These are the halcyon days." 


9 comments:

  1. No Comments? What a wonderful post about your family! Greatly enjoyed reading it and loved the pictures--ah, the secrets of ice cream!

    ML

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    1. Yes magic ice-cream..the sure cure to all the world's problems :-)

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  2. Ah,that is a sweet post.I read a lot of Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables when I was around 9-14.

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    1. Oh yes..I'd forgotten about Anne of Green Gables, that might be a nice one to read aloud with my 12 year old...she's just the right age. Thanks for that reminder. BTW, I just had a little peep into your ETSY shop...I'll be pinning some of those super-pretty hair decorations :-)

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  3. I gotta love Take #2. Just last night, my youngest spotted the ice cream truck mere seconds before it pulled away. I could see the tears welling up, so I did what any mother would have done in that sitch: had my boy hop into the car and hang on while Mom burned rubber in hot pursuit of the ice cream truck. We caught up four miles later, and Gerard got the coveted cone of twist custard with sprinkles. And now he loves me more than ever :)

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  4. Only a Mother would speed-chafe the ice-cream van! That's so funny!

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  5. CHASE!! Auto-Correct strikes again!!

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  6. Loved this post! Currently enjoying and simultaneously mourning the end of those innocent days - I have a 9 and 11 year old who are coming up on adolescence waay too quickly. We also have just learned about the role of cuddlleee, being blessed with a 7 month old baby boy. It is amazing how much more precious the baby days are when you have the perspective of older children to remind you how fleeting it is. Thanks for the post!

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    1. Katy, I'll bet you're enjoying that little Cuddlleee more than you could imagine, give him one for me :-)

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