Conversations

Growing up with only brothers, and brothers who are much younger at that, did nothing to prepare me for being the mama of three little girls. One would think, that only being the ages of 4, 2, and 1, life would be filled with the simpler things, like picking noses, twirling dresses, and hide and seek. Well, life is full of those things, that's for sure (yes, even little girls pick their noses) but what I wasn't ready for was my conversation today with my almost 5 years old.

She started telling me about her wedding, who she was going to marry (I'm happy with her choice lol), asked if she could wear my wedding dress and veil, who was going to come, what we were going to eat (apparently I'm supposed to make chicken noodle soup now and save it for her wedding), etc. And then she started talking about babies! Where she would have her baby. If I was going to be there. All the things I thought might wait till she is at least double digits.

How my heart has raced, melted and exploded today as I navigated through these conversations that I would have thought were far beyond her years. But that's my firstborn for you and it also goes to show that little girls think about these things. It's been woven into who they are. My L is far beyond her years in thinking, vocabulary and maturity, which is often the case of firstborns. Nothing can prepare you for these daunting and somewhat surprising conversations, but I find it important to meet them head on, not tip toe around them, and give some clear, concise answers as best I can. Because she knows when I'm making stuff up! Who's kid is this anyway? If I'm going to create trust and a comfortable space of open communication with my girls, I need to be on the ready, always, for all these conversations, whether they come 10 years sooner than I would like.

At least later on, our conversation changed to excitement about Santa coming to visit, and making sure we have cookies to leave out for him, and that we should probably make him a steamer because he might like that better than plain milk. This relaxed my mind, reminding me, my girly is still only 4, though she be going on 18, and exerted her very firstborn thinking skills in preparing how to welcome Santa into our home. And while she continues to plan out our next several days, my middle child will continue to cause mischief and be a snuggle bug and my baby will continue to entertain and cry when she doesn't get picked up as soon she feels she ought to.

Remember to take in the beauty of who your kids are, their individual personalities and enjoy them to the very last, annoying, joyful, noise-filled, challenging moment possible. They are only this age once :) I'm feeling blessed.

Keep it real mama's!

~Aryn~