Spraying boards

 Up and devo, pickleball at 8, Stopped at Kay's, Stopped at Reals's, Home to spray dock boards. Wayne and Kay stopped to look at the tree stump.  I read at the pool for about an hour.  Pony tail cards at 7. 

Your firstborn will never grow as fast as the day when you bring home your second born.

When you hug them goodbye before leaving for the hospital, your firstborn is a baby still. They’ll feel so small and fragile in your arms. Your little baby.

But then you come home with your tiny newborn second child and all of a sudden your firstborn has turned into a giant.

A proper kid. Their baby features has washed away over night. In comparison with their sibling, they are absolutely enormous.

Towering over your newborn, all clumsy limbs and with fingers that poke too hard.

“Be careful with the baby! No don’t do that! Shhhh the baby is sleeping!” You’ll say to your little giant.

In comparison with their sibling, they don’t seem so fragile or small or in need of you any longer.

In comparison to your newborn, they seem so self sufficient and strong.

It’s easy to forget that they need you just as much as before.

Yes, they may be able to get their own drink and eat by themselves.

Yes, they can (and insist) on putting on their own clothes and shoes.

But they need your attention and love and reassurance more than ever.

They are still very much your baby, in toddler form.

They are still fragile. A different kind of fragile, but fragile nevertheless.

I forget that sometimes. Expecting my eldest to be older and wiser than she is, because she is not the baby her little sister is.

But sometimes I get a little reminder.

She’ll say something or do something.

And I’ll realise just how much she needs me after all.

Even if she is not my little baby any longer.