Having four children keeps one on their toes.
Having a Judah ups that ante exponentially.
He is fearless, he is strong and he is capable of doing things much bigger kids than he are too scared to try.
He is exhausting.
All summer he has been riding his bike faster and faster, crazier and crazier. He started popping wheelies and they got bigger. He started sitting on the back tire. He started standing up. He would try and ride without hands. All kid stuff, right?
And then one day he said "Hey Mama! Look!" And he was standing on the SEAT while riding his bike.
He was four years old.
And then one day, giving his mother a heart attack by standing on the seat wasn't good enough. He had to do it one legged.
Judah and Corynn just had their birthdays at the beginning of this month.
Now, he is five. Now, she is twelve.
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| He had a bloody nose here- hence the headtip. ;-) |
It is a hard thing to know just how to give these children of mine just what they need, even when it doesn't come natural to me. It is hard, as their Mama, to know just how to encourage them and not stifle them while still protecting them. Some of the things they do (or think or question) I am just not ready for- but I have to actively try NOT to hinder them just because I am not ready for it.
This is new territory for me and I am finding it hard to find that balance. I want to hold them close and keep them my little dependent ducklings forever but at the same time, it is almost magical, seeing these little children unfurl into creative, unique persons with skills and talents, joys and passions all their own.
How will I raise an almost teenager?!? A girl who is working to discover who she is and what she stands for.
How will I survive a Judah? A boy who spends most of his time flabbergasting me and the rest of it exasperating me?
How will I do right by all my children?
I don't know much but I do know one thing:
I'll be doing it on my knees.
8 comments:
And I thought I was the only one who didn't make my kids wear helmets! Brace yourself, you're gonna get it. ;)
Amen how right! Love the pics! Christina
Amen how right! Love the pics! Christina
I'm asking myself these very same questions!!! It is a daunting task...this mothering...YES. Thank God for His strength!!!
i've relished your abundance of recent posts and have soaked up every glimpse, every maternal consideration, joy, and worry you've shared, to all of which i quite relate, albeit a decade ahead and three children shy of you on this magnificent journey - - - my only worry has nothing to do with bike helmets (i mean really, who wore 'em when we were young?) but rather that you were too hard on your (beautiful!) self in the previous post - - lovely, lovely mama, inside and out.
and regarding your hoss? no doubt whatsoever that he will be one amazing man. abundantly worth every fret. he is glorious.
XOXOXOXOXO
b in va
It's a blessed, beautiful, active (!) household you have! Enjoy every minute of it (easier said than done when you're in the throws of it), and years from now you will all sit around and share some great memories. My boys used to come in from the back woods and tell me who climbed the cliff, etc, etc... (but they were older than your Judah). Sometimes Mama doesn't need to know the details--only that the children are safe and had a great adventure... Life is a great adventure!
Happy Birthday to Corynn and Judah!!
Happety-hap, J & C!
One small word regarding Judah. When he starts riding one-legged without hands, keep him away from your barbed wire fences. Granted, my brother Luke's scars add a dash of Davy-Jones-Locker charm to his face, but, still...
And I love that last picture.
I sent you an email about school supplies. I don't know why on earth you'd respond to a comment from a long-delinquent commenting chum and not to the email, but it's worth a shot. (Can you tell I'm too lazy to just pack them back into the crawlspace?) I can bring them tomorrow!
These pictures remind me so much of the scene in The Sound of Music when the children go on their picnic with Maria.
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