Friday, March 18, 2011

Motherhood is Bittersweet

Our little ones are growing fast, too fast for my liking in fact. Our big ones are growing way too fast too. It's been easy to keep the older girls at a slower pace than most girls their age. With these little ones, it's been harder. They want to be big like their big sisters, and do everything they do. They are my babies and of course I want them to stay little as long as possible.

Emily and Julia are very inquisitive, they want to know everything, why it is, and how it works and what it's for. I love this about them. They are pretty sharp little cookies. They are convinced that they are suddenly going to be as big as their sisters as soon as they are 5. All they can talk about is what they can do and how big they will be when they're 5. It's really sweet. They are into doing everything themselves (which I love). They are very quick learners. They want to try everything and they have fantastic memories. They love to memorize new scriptures and retell stories that we read to them from the Bible. They are so much fun.

This past week Julia has been begging us to remove the training wheels from her bike. Emily started asking soon after Julia. She is very quick to follow Julia's lead, and can't have her twin do something that she's not doing. Instead of removing the training wheels, Adam adjusted them so that they wouldn't touch the ground at the same time, to help them learn to balance. They were not happy about this. Yesterday, Julia told me she wants those training wheels off. I was really not wanting to teach them to ride on 2 wheels yet. All 3 of the older girls were about 7 when they learned and it took a while and several falls for them to "get it".

Adam didn't have work yesterday and was home with us. We took a family jog/walk/bike ride to the park and played soccer. It was so nice. We came home and had lunch. Julia insisted I remove her training wheels right after lunch. Sheesh this child was not going to let up. So we gave in and removed them.

We all went out to the front yard to teach them to ride on 2 wheels. Julia got on her bike and I got in the teaching position holding her seat. I told her what she had to do. She was really anxious and said okay okay. She started to ride as I was running behind holding her seat. She said "Let GO, Mom!" so I did. And she rode all by herself like she had been riding on 2 wheels her whole life. She never fell, she just rode.

Next came Emily's turn. She said she didn't want us to hold her bike, she just wanted to ride like Julia. And.....She did! She took off and rode that bike. Adam and I were standing there amazed. I can't believe they could just ride like that. They are having a little trouble starting and stopping on their own, but they can ride like nobodies business.

It was a bittersweet moment, watching our little babies become a little more grown up. I really love each season of mommy-hood. Each stage is wonderful. I'm just so happy to be able to experience this. I'm so very grateful to God for giving us these sweet children. I'm was so happy that Adam was home yesterday and didn't miss them riding their bikes.

Here are some pictures of their accomplishment (courtesy of our photographer, August)

These first 3 pictures are of Julia




These last 3 pictures are of Emily



Both of them on 2 wheels before they are 5 years old.

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