The Gift of Four

  

  I am a stay at home mom, who is rarely at home.  My days are spent chauffeuring kids, volunteering at the school, helping with homework, cooking, doing laundry... o.k. you get the point, my life is busy.  I generally fall into bed at night exhausted.  With four kids my life is loud and chaotic.  I am so busy being caught in the whirlwind that is our life that sometimes I forget to stop and appreciate what a gift I have.

    Elly is four.  Traditionally four is my favourite age.  At four they are still full of wonder, life is still new.  Almost everything they see is magical.  Magic is very real to a four year old.  Four is the age of wonder.  I forgot this amongst all the chaos that is my life.  Today I am separating time and fully appreciating what a gift 4 is.

Suzy Wooden

    Elly is a character.  She is spunky (that is code name for spoiled).  She is the last of 5.  You would think that being our last I would look at everything she does as a gift, but I am human after all.  She is the most stubborn, determined child, and sometimes I loose sight of the fact that she is such a gift because I am beating my head against the wall wondering how to get through to her.  She is also the most funny little ray of light.

    Yesterday she insisted on being called Chelsea. She came down the stairs naked as the day she was born.  She walked across the room with a swing of the hips and walked like she was wearing high heels.  "Oh Hi guys.  I'm Chelsea.  Sorry I'm naked, but I'm looking for my hotel room so that I can have a shower."   All of this was said in the voice of a valley girl.  I nearly peed my pants.  This was not an isolated event.  She regularly has me in hysterics ( sometimes it's hysterical laughter, sometimes it's hysterical frustration).

    Elly has had this little Kewpie doll looking baby doll that my parents gave to her some time ago.  It sat in her toy box for at least a year.  Two weeks ago she discovered that doll and fell in love.  She has named the doll "Suzy Wooden".  As in everything that Elly does there really is no rhyme of reason to it.  The name does crack me up.  Sometimes I find myself asking Elly about Suzy Wooden, just so that I can say "Suzy Wooden".  Today she came downstairs with Suzy Wooden and Riley's doll "Ali"(don't tell Riley, but Elly has pretty much taken ownership of Ali) dressed in green.  She was most concerned that they be dressed in green because it is St. Patrick's day.  If you are not dressed in green for 

St. Patrick's day, then you open yourself up to be pinched.  She did not want her babies being pinched.

    I need to slow down and take it in.  Elly will only be four for 7 more months.  She will only be little for just a little while, the blink of an eye really.  The next time that I am fighting her to do something, maybe I need to just stop and marvel at the wonder that she is.  She is our gift, they all are.