GANEIDA'S KNOT.

Go mbeannai Dia duit.

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Quaker by conviction, mother by default, Celticst through love, Christ follower because I once was lost but now am found...

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Memories...

Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials. ~Meryl StreepHow things change over the years! I do actually remember my daughters like this. They were the clinging limpet sorts. Liddy is notorious for not even speaking to her father until she was 3. If he so much as looked at her she burst into tears. I couldn't ask anyone to babysit her because she cried heartbrokenly the entire time I was gone no matter how much she liked them if I was around & available. The child that at 2 was marching round issuing orders became the young girl who wouldn't make a decision. Best not to even mention Ditz. My mother would remark tartly that the child would never learn to walk if she were never put down & when, against the odds, Ditz walked at 6 months, bribbed by her siblings with strawberries, I heard, "She has two perfectly good legs of her own"...but Ditz liked to be carried on my hip, close to me & where she could be in the thick of things.Demure? Ditz? Photos are deceptive & the camera has always liked Ditz but we have gone from that to this:My girls have grown up. Liddy spends her days away from me making decisions & issuing orders. Ditz walks perfectly well on her own two legs & occassionally tries to pick me up & cart me round. The balance of power has shifted imperceptably. Children do grow up. Only the memories remain. I look at my girls, who are now bigger than I am, & I don't regret one minute of the hours I spent cuddling them because the hugs are fewer these days, the hurts less easily mended with a hug & a kiss & our time together grows short.





5 comments:

seekingmyLord said...

I think blog entries that are going to make me cry should have a warning at the start. I am going to take my all-day headache to bed now. May the Lord bless you.

Britwife said...

That is just lovely!
I carried the kids around constantly too. (But your mother was right in my case...none of them walked much until they were about 12-16 months!)
Isn't the bond between the sisters wonderful - despite, or perhaps because of, their differences? I love how close your family is with one another.

Mrs. Darling said...

Ah this is happy and sad at the same time. Tink just came through her first teen conference and I felt strongly the passing of time and how short of a time she still has with us. Its all sad but good really.Motherhood is such a mixed bag!

Sandra said...

It passes too quickly and if you were like me, always in a hurry, you missed so much and you can't go back to reclaim it. This is a lovely post and your children are lucky to have you.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ganeida,
Your mum sounds just like my mum. She always said that our children didn't have legs of their own.

How quickly they grow, though! I'm happy that I've cuddled and nurtured them, and the cuddles and kisses that I get now are soooo special!