Someone slap me! How can I be the Mother of two teenagers....
Seriously. There are so many days that I have to remind myself that I am a Mom of two teenage girls. I am sure that I am not the only parent who feels that way. My gosh, I remember diapers and itty bitty shoes, cutting crust off sandwiches and sippy cups.
At the time it was all a whirlwind, of exhaustion! The routine so very ingrained. Waking little faces up, bathroom routines, breakfast in Dora the Explorer pj's, brushing teeth and getting dressed. Off to daycare, work all day, pick them up and head home. Dinner and playing, bath time, pj's, reading books and bed time kisses. Lights off and then you would crash like jello into the couch or bed, just to wake up and do it all over again the next day.
It wasn't that mundane but boy there were days where I thought I was a zombie or a robot. Then there were the weekends or summertime, spending time outside in the pool, and then the inevitable run around the yard naked or long walks finding frogs, snakes and beautiful rocks.
This one summer evening I remember, the girls had rode their bicycles down the parkway to our spot where we would cross the road and go down to the water. They were splashing around in their shorts and tank tops having a blast. Their sandals could get wet so they didn't bother to come off either. Then the tragedy of all tragedy's struck and all hell broke loose. I won't say which child it was, I'll let them divulge it as they get older - this will also protect me in the interim as I still have a few more years of living with them.
We were climbing back up to the road when one of them noticed something sticking out of the toe of their sandal. We all thought it was a weed and told her to pull it off. The next moments that occurred...all I can say is that I was happy to be living where no one could hear the life altering screams that were released from one of my tiny humans. It was slippery, felt like jelly and was fully attached to her with blood. Yes my friends, a leech.
If anyone heard us, they would have thought we were torturing her. It takes about 20 minutes to bike back from where we were. The stomping, screaming, refusal to ride her bike back, everything and anything you could think of was happening right there and then. What was a lovely after dinner walk turned into blood curdling mayhem. I have no doubt that the Lanigan's, whose house we have to pass, thought she was some wild crazy tortured animal.
We finally arrive home, remove the sandal, and there it was, happy and feeding on a cut on her toe. A little salt was shaken on it and it fell off. Nightmare of screaming tiny human 10,358 was finally over.
Now I am sure that some of you parents have been here in this capacity of trying to calm the wild one. When you can get them half way there, they completely collapse, so exhausted that they start to soothe themselves by being in your arms and eventually fall asleep with the tiniest ugly cry breath taken every few minutes.
I'd like to say that the nightmare of screaming doesn't happen anymore, it does. Now they just have huge teenage voices and opinions to go with it. What changes and almost goes missing is the soothing part. No falling asleep in your arms. They now know how to self soothe and reason with themselves, manage themselves and move on to the next one.
They are so smart, yet so inexperienced. I find each day, at some point, I am taken back at the fact that they are finishing high school and starting to choose post secondary adventures. I look at them and I know they are young women, learning and growing in life but my mind also thinks that they are 5 and 3, getting ready to put their helmets on and go for a bike ride or coming straight out of the pool stripping to the buff and running around the yard asking us to chase them and giggle themselves to death at how hilarious they are.
Its true that time passes quickly, babies grow to toddlers,toddlers to school age, school age to teenagers, teenagers to adults. Measurement of time before them didn't exist and somehow it passed and we can't understand how we got here so soon.
So if you see me on the street, a little dazed, its just my brain trying to reconcile time. Reconciling memories. Reconciling my heart.
Until next time,
N
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