Bringing Back Flashbacks

Yesterday, I began to have a lot of flashbacks to when my children were younger. You know that wonderful age of 5 years old. How is it that I so conveniently forgot about that magical age. You know the age when it seems all the house rules have grown feet and walked out the door. The little mouths that just forget what they are saying. Oh and the strong willed personalities that suddenly decide it will be their way or no way.

 

This was the picture in our house yesterday morning. Selena kept thinking that grandma couldn’t see her and insisted that jumping on the couch was way too much fun. Finally I one grandma got pretty tired of it and grounded her to the floor. I think you can tell by the picture she didn’t really enjoy that very well.

Yet, the other side of this age of 5 that I totally forgot was how cuddly they suddenly become. I forgot how this seemed like the last year that either of my older children would crawl up in my lap and sit for so long and just cuddle. Or how anytime they got scrapes they would want to sit in my lap and have their tears wiped away. Yes, this is one side of Selena that I am loving, all though she does need to understand that we can not cuddle all day long. This grandma does have things to do, and does not do well just sitting on the couch all day long with a heavy 5 year old sitting on her legs which suddenly goes to sleep under the weight.

This is also the age where the thought of going to spend the weekend away from home sounds so great for us as parents, but can twist the nerves of a child. On this morning Selena woke up and asked what she was going to do at Kelly’s over the weekend. I explained she was going to go play with some girls. I guess Selena got confused and thought I was suddenly talking about our friend Kelly who lives in Mississippi and has two girls. She began to weep, “I don’t want to go so far from (insert our address) my state!” Finally I was able to get it through to her that we were not sending her to Mississippi, that she would only be the next town over from us. Of course that brought all the questions of where we would be. For as much as I wanted to just say “AWAY!”, I calmly explained that we were only going to be away for one night.

With so much emotion in one day from my sweet little 5 year old, made me remember back so fondly to all the hair pulling, fun, and pure joyful times I had when my children were just 5. This phase will soon pass, and we will get on with a normal (well, if there is such a thing as total normalcy with children) life again. For now though I will laugh my way through all the funny times, cherish all the extra cuddling, and stay consistent on the tiny things called rules.

WARNING: I may not be blogging as much during this time, my focus truly is needed more on Selena, playing, loving, and training her through this very difficult stage of wanting to grow up, but on the other hand not really knowing if she should.