Ana came into the bathroom the other morning as I was performing my morning ablutions,  sat down on the toilet seat, stretched her legs their full length to rest on the edge of the tub and declared, “Mom, I’m growing!  Look how big I am from here to here.”  She put one hand at the top of her legs and one hand at her feet.

“Yup.  You’re getting bigger alright.  That’s exactly what you’re supposed to be doing right now.”  

Ana has always seemed in a bit of a hurry to grow up.  David on the other hand.  Well, we finally decided to take away his geegah (blankie) from him at night time.  I know this seems a particularly cruel thing to do to a kid, but his geegah and his thumb sucking go hand hand.  One of his front teeth is actually pushed up too far into his gum line because of the thumb.  Luckily, it’s not his permanent tooth, but we are reaching the point of no return in terms of possible permanent damage (and lots of money spent on Orthodontia).  Thus, away with the blankie and it’s a hard change for all of us.  David will probably always need a bit of a push in order to grow up.

Yesterday morning, I was dicing onion to go with the sauerkraut and kielbasa for New Year’s Day.  I had to turn the  fluorescent lights which reside under the upper cabinets on so I could see better.  In that rather unforgiving light, I noticed that I no longer have a young woman’s hands.  They’re not wrinkly and my knuckles haven’t taken on a swollen appearance yet so they are not an old woman’s hands…but no longer would I call them young looking…too many freckles and somewhat enlarged looking pores.  Probably if I’d taken better care of my hands over the years they’d be in better shape.

I guess we’re all growing just the way we should be.

Happy New Year!