|

|

Seven-and-a-Half

freckles

She’s 7-and-a-half.

So big in some ways and yet still so little.

She comes downstairs each morning, bleary eyes fresh from slumber — always the first one up, even though her brother’s bus comes a full hour before hers.

She stumbles into my office and climbs into my lap, interrupting my train of thought as I type a response to one of the gazillion emails that greet me each morning. She nuzzles her face into my neck and attempts to fold her long, sturdy limbs so she fits into my arms.

I close my eyes and will myself to leave my email message unfinished and ignore the dings of Facebook updates and early morning tweets. Instead I breathe in the sweet scent of freshly washed hair and kiss the smooth, satiny cheek that lays against mine.

And we sit, listening to the birds chirping outside and the familiar sounds of the house waking up around us, shifting and repositioning ourselves often so she may remain curled up in my lap like an oversized toddler.

Soon she will hop down and scamper off to get herself ready for school.

Later she’ll be running the neighborhood with her friends, tormenting the dog, arguing with her siblings and coming up with inventive ways of staying up past her bedtime.

But for those few peaceful moments each morning, she’s my baby again.

Join The Conversation

9 Responses

  1. I love this 🙂 and I remember very similar mornings with my little girl, who is now a sassy 12 year old who once in a blue moon, when all the stars align, will still try to climb on my lap. Cherish those moments.

  2. So sweet. My child that is the same age is not the baby, but there’s something about him that makes both my husband and I feel like he is sometimes. I think because he was the born 2 years after our first three, giving us a chance to really experience his babyhood and it was 2.5 years before we had another. This is such a sweet age too, in my opinion.

  3. If I ever find out you were emailing a response to one of my rants instead of having an early morning snuggle with that sweet little girl I’ll stop reading your blog !!

    Seriously though…my almost 14 year old will still come up and and want an early morning snuggle and I’m so glad. Does my heart good.

    1. It’s the best! It wasn’t too long ago that even my 13-y/o son would sit on my lap for a snuggle. But it’s been a while. 🙂 I hope I have a few years left with my girls.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search
Close this search box.