1:15 p.m. - September 18, 2006
Watching Them Grow!
The other day I was giving Katie and Kristin baths and I was about ready to take Kristin out of the tub when Katie said, �Daddy wait a minute. I want to tell you something.�
�I�m going to marry Logan from preschool,� she said.
Well, last year it was Patrick, but he�s in first grade now, so there you go.
Then, Katie paused and asked, �Daddy? How come a girl can�t marry another girl if she wants to?�
I paused, and then said to her, �Well, it all depends on who she�s in love with.�
That knocked me for a loop.
Last Thursday, Katie started soccer. Kristin can really move now, and she just loves playing with any kind of balls that roll around. Katie was so much more confident and active at soccer than she was in the spring. She really got after it for the most part before she tired out.
But Kristin, at age 15 months, was kicking and dribbling the ball naturally like she was ready to go out there and play. It just came natural to her. She can also pick things up that weigh 6 pounds or so, and for a baby girl she has guns for arm muscles.
Then there was Saturday. It was a hectic Saturday as Liz had a League of Women Voters meeting to attend, then I had to scoot over to campus for a football game (I do the PA and the defensive stats and player participation). After that, we had to run up to rural Lafayette for my great nephew�s birthday party. So there was a lot o� stuff going on.
Katie was running around and playing without a care. She was holding her own with her cousins, and while didn�t want to get involved in the big soccer game, she could really kick the ball around and liked to play on the monkey bars and swings they had there.
Kristin, though, was running all over the place. She wanted me to chase her. She wanted to go walk all over the place, and chase after her sister. She wanted everyone to see the kitties on her Robies. She wanted to go, go, go.
My goodness, where has the time gone?
It just seemed like yesterday that we brought our second bundle of miracle joy home from the hospital. It wasn�t that long ago that we were made into a forever family, the four of us.
And to be honest, I can remember Katie when she was a baby � when all you needed was a blanket and a few toys scattered around and she was happy and content to look and touch at the toys and try to scoot over to them.
Now, Katie�s playing soccer, flirting with her preschool boy buddies, sassing us all at dinner, and asking all types of questions.
She�s sad about her grandmother dying, still, and sometimes asks about death and dying and what happens afterwards. That�s heavy stuff for a 40-year old, much less a 4 � year old.
Kristin is running, and her vocabulary is growing. She�s saying a lot of words like �sissy�, �bath�, �Mommy�, �Daddy�, �ball�, �bear�, �Katie� and other reasonable facsimiles of words and sounds.
I don�t know if I can handle this right now. My babies are growing up, and I can�t stop them.
Kristin gives the best hugs in the world. When you go into her room to get her out of the crib, she will hug you and not let go until you put her on the changing table. She will leap into your arms. Liz often times is taken aback on how Kristin can lunge at her and clamp onto her the way a barnacle clamps onto a ship�s hull.
Kristin is also eating almost all of the food we do, as long as it�s not too spicy or hard to chew (since she only has six teeth that I can see with more on the way, no doubt).
As for Katie, she loves her tap class, loves to go to Sunday school, loves to create art, loves soccer (for now) and talking to her friends. She�s definitely an alpha personality, as sometimes she drags around her friends who seem to have little choice to follow. She loves school, too, and loves to read. Sometimes she wants Liz to read her 10 books at quiet time before bed (as long as she has retained that privilege).
Sure, they do a lot of kid like things, and I have plenty of time to savor their adolescence, but nobody told me that it was both joyous and sad to see them grow up right before your eyes. I think I�d like to have them age only one day for every two, so I can savor this time a bit longer, before school obligations and other things make everything crazy-go-nuts.
I sometimes tear up a bit when I get home from work, and Kristin and Katie come charging toward me at first sight, and then I see Liz beaming because she knows the girls love their daddy and we have a family of love and affection.
When I was growing up, Bobby Goldsboro, the king of sap, had a hit with �Watching Scottie Grow�, which of course my Mom loved and played it for me a lot. (Oh, man, it�s hard to take � it can give healthy person diabetes for sure!)
As I watch Katie and Kristin grow, I can understand the sentiment. I have pictures, I have memories, and I have their love and affection. Liz and I are very lucky people, and we remind each other every day. But really, we don�t need to remind each other, because all we need to do is see Katie and Kristin to know that.
