Just giving a shout-out to our first daughter whose birthday is today. She was our homebirth test flight. It went very well in that we had a baby and everything was fine. Now she is almost three months out from her third child's birth and I, again, find myself flabbergasted that all those years have gone by.
You'd think I'd get over the fact that our children are adults and we're old. But it happened so fast. Someday, she'll be sitting there writing a birthday card to her grown-up daughter and feeling the same sense of disorientation.
This girl taught herself to read when she was about three and a half and she has spent very little time since then without a book in her hand. It isn't really a mystery, I guess. When you have the second baby and you've got a two year old, one effective way to keep track of everyone is to sit the big brother down beside you on the couch and read a story while you nurse the baby. Then, through the miracle of hyper-fertility (really it wasn't a miracle---it was sex) we had another baby before she was two. Sooo...lots more reading books on the couch with mom while she nursed the baby. Apparently the synapses were firing away and our daughter made that connection and started to read on her own.
Reading has always been a big deal in our house. It was one of the things that attracted me to CoolGuy when we were in sixth grade. He read books all the time. There was always quite a bit of reading in our house and she was fully immersed in the culture. Here is a cool poem she wrote in 8th grade that I have framed in my room.
My parents took me places
I'd never been before.
They showed me different faces
Of hope, of peace, and war.
We went to many different lands,
Where rabbits sang and mice talked,
Even snakes had legs and hands,
And whales stood up and walked.
We flew into outer space,
And climbed the mountains steep.
I watched winning horses race,
And swam the ocean deep.
My parents gave me something fun,
Which they knew I'd need.
I'll love them more than anyone,
They taught me how to read.
May 8, 1992
"Traditionally, literature makes much of the beauty of fleeting things and the delight of the bittersweet mixing of pain and pleasure. But no one ever said that heaven was seasonal or fleeting. Heaven is always portrayed as blissfully monotonous, one bright blue day after another forever and ever. Rather like California."
About Me
- Earth Sign Mama
- Daughter of two, sister of seven, wife of one, mother of five, grandmother of four, teacher of nine-year olds.
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