This evening my return home from work heralded a banquet your average 6 year might turn inside out for. Hotdogs, chips, dips, potato wedges, and cheese and pineapple on sticks (yes, I really did just write that). It had been provided to mark the beginning of the 6th year on earth for she was previously known as “Little Miss 5”.
Having now got all the kids through the bath, into pyjamas, read stories, kissed goodnight, and drunk half a bottle of wine, I can perhaps reflect a little more than I might have done earlier.
We’ve come a long way.
It’s nearly two years since the adoption happened, and three little people became our responsibility. Two years filled with stress, havoc, tiredness, and expensewhich has of course been offset with fun, hilarity, joy, and more love than you can shake a many pronged pointy stick at. Children don’t just pay back; they pay back fiercely. The night before last both Little Miss 5 (as she was then) and Little Miss 4 asked to be picked up. I asked “Whoever gives me the best reason first will be picked up”. Quick as a flash, the older of the two piped up “I love you Dad!”, and hugged my leg. How on earthdo you counter that ? W almost cried while trying not to laugh out loud. The children sometimes remind us that we should be more open with our emotions; to communicate that which we enjoy, and that which we dissapprove of. The world of grown-ups can so easily be clouded by appearances,pretensions, and manners. A few moments ago I talked with my cousin via Facebook chat, and expressed the frustration I often feel that we are so often not allowed to compliment each other lest somebody else think ill of us. I digress.
Little Miss 5 is now Little Miss 6. Where we once worried about her development, and caught ourselves falling into the local parent trap of striving to build the next bionically gifted child, we are now running to keep pace with her. Each week brings new words she can spell. new arithmetic she can solve, new dinosaurs she can name, new adjectives she can use, and numerous other abilities. If you blink you miss their appearance, and yet sometimes in the dead of night you find yourself whispering to you other half “Did you hear what she said this morning?”