Now We Know

A woman, who's about our age, from our church just called Joe to ask a legal question and kept calling him Mr. O____. I guess that tells us which generation people at church think we belong to, even if our ages would seem to say otherwise. I was laughing when Joe told me and then I told Joe that I'm almost positive when she and I have talked before she's called me Cate. Joe's response: Well, isn't that almost worse? I'm still laughing.

Growing Too Fast

Every parent laments how quickly their children grow. They grow too fast is the refrain that escapes mother's lips in conversations with each other almost daily.  The conversation is old.  It's constant.  But it's true.

Little Elisabeth is not so little anymore.  She, like the older two, has turned into a chatterbox but, even more vexing than that, is she is now completely and totally independent. Her favorite phrase is, "No!  I do it 'self!"  In Elisabeth's world there is nothing to be done that she can not do on her own.

An example.

Her car seat, a highly elevated Britax Marathon, sits high above her thirty-six inch frame.  Her life would be much simpler if she allowed an adult to pick her up and put her in the seat.  

But no.  That is not to be.

You see, Elisabeth is physically able to get up in her seat on her own even though it takes a few attempts, extra time and extra patience on my part.  But she can do it and she knows she can do it so she will do it.

Given that Baby Elisabeth is probably our last baby I think I feel her independence and growing up more acutely than I did the others.  I realize that this fiercely independent stage of hers is probably just that: a stage and soon she'll be riding a two-wheeler and reading The Secret Garden.  

So, please, forgive me the cliche, but she's growing up too fast!

Digital World

When I was growing up my mom had a large, black, rotary dial phone next to her bed in addition to the main phone the rest of us shared in our downstairs hallway. I thought that clunky old rotary phone was the cat's meow because you could use it while lying on a bed. I mean, really, how great was technology, right?

My children don't know what a rotary dial phone is. The only place they've seen one is at a museum. They know a world where cell phones and cordless phones rule. They know they can email me from Daddy's phone. Elisabeth has four discarded cell phones among her collection of very favorite toys.

When I was growing up pictures where taken on rolls of film that you had to wait days or weeks to have developed before you could actually see them. Unless, of course, you were lucky enough to have have a Polaroid camera (I wasn't) and then you could see your pictures instantly (or, after five minutes, which seemed instant at that time).

Anytime someone takes my children's picture they immediately run behind the photographer so they can see the photo on the camera's display screen. And the picture is always on ready display because nearly everyone has a digital camera. Including, now, my seven-year-old daughter-- and she knows how to use it ("Let's review the pictures now, Hank, OK? ")!

We've gained a lot as a society but, sometimes, I feel as if we've lost a lot also. Remember the days when if you weren't available at work whomever was trying to reach you would just leave a message with a co-worker? On paper? They wouldn't have a five alternate numbers to try before giving up or, as a last resort, be able to email you anytime, anywhere.

Even more incomprehensible these days, if you tried to reach someone at home and they weren't there you had to simply try back later and hope you reached them. Frustrating, sure, but wasn't life a bit calmer and simpler before having three different voice mails to check and analyzing a caller ID log? Wasn't it more relaxing when you weren't expected to be reached, and respond, instantly?

I can't talk, really. My family and I have bought into all the digital devices that are supposed to make our lives simpler. It's just that, at times, I wonder if they really do.

Nate the Great

Do you remember the Nate the Great detective stories? I do. I remember reading them in grade school and enjoying the mystery and the climax, when the mystery would finally be solved.

Earlier in the week I was helping out in Madeleine's classroom and the kids were taking turns reading to me. I was excited to see that one of the books assigned was a Nate the Great mystery. After reading me one section of the book I commented to C______, one of Madeleine's classmates, "You know, C______, I used to read these when I was in school."

C______ looked at me incredulously. "Really? That must be why the pictures are all black and white," he responded.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Yep, " I said. "Must be."

The Equality of Adulthood

In the eyes of a child an adult can just as easily be twenty-five as sixty-five. If you're six the two ages may as well be the same.

This afternoon, in my basement, the following conversation took place between Madeleine and her friend B___:

Madeleine (while waiting for her She-Ra video to start): This is a really great movie.

B___: She-Ra is really pretty.

Madeleine: Yes, she is. And she's also really, really old. My mom used to watch this what she was a kid! (Her eyes are bugging out as she says this, as if she herself can't quite believe it).

B___: Whoa, that IS old!

Hmph.