I’ve had a nickname for ours since shortly after she was born, and I’ve been dreading the day that she sternly looks at me and tells me that she’s not that baby anymore.
Granted, I’m already plotting to put it in mental storage until just before I walk her down the aisle at her wedding someday. Emotional terrorism Uno reverse!
Our daughter has a given name, an “official” nickname (the one she goes by 98% of the time), and then I have the nickname I call her at bedtime. I will be devastated when she rebuffs the latter.
When my daughter (also 8) was just starting to talk she couldn't say her brother's name. So she called him "Ga-Ga"... and then insisted we all do the same. That lasted for what felt like years, but was probably 9 months. Then one day, she reprimanded me (at 2) and said "Not Ga-Ga, Oscar". Now she is telling that story.
Ah read this immediately after picking my 6.5 year old up and carrying him down the hall and saying "you now, pretty soon you're going to be too big for scoops like this. And I'll miss it."
Being in Florida, I have been monitoring the track of Milton, but dang, didn't see this monster of an article coming down the pipeline. This is one of the best.
my then-girlfriend (now-wife) and I were going through the rituals of sharing meaningful media with one another when we first started dating: movies we loved, albums, books, whatever. one day she was like "I love time travel stories, have you seen this movie About Time? we should watch it" and then I sobbed for two hours, having irrevocably changed my feelings about how my parents are aging
I happily do not have children myself, but as someone who saw his mother last week for the first time in a year and his father for the first time in nearly a decade, I am not made of stone.
In 10 days we are off to NC to visit our kids, (my step son and wife) and their babies, whom we once watched over a few days every week for five years. Your piece today so perfectly reflects my own thoughts as we look forward to seeing them again, I’d swear you were doing some kind of mind meld.
We FaceTime every week, but I feel them growing up and away with every call, and that’s as it should be, but is nevertheless too sweetly sad for words.
In his poem “On Children”, Khalil Gibran wrote, “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.".
I’ve always thought what a perfect metaphor it is, and a good reminder on how to let go.
I've learned to be careful when I get a notification from Outlook or Facebook about memories of that date, because sometimes it's a banal picture from a trip, but more often it's a picture from the double-pigtail/tutu years and it's like a punch in the gut to see. Also those toy kitchens are TRULY a nightmare to put together
I distinctly remember the Christmas Eve when I posted a picture of a glass of wine and the screws—just the screws—to the play kitchen we were assembling. *Multiple* people responded “oh, that’s the KidCraft kitchen… good luck.”
"I’m a shameless sentimentalist. You already know this about me, and hopefully it’s an endearing quality. It’s not something I can change, anyway,"
Scott if you think we are here for anything other than shameless sentimentality you haven't been paying attention. Thanks for the terrorism this morning.
Since your daughter loved 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte' you've got to get up to Columbus one of these days for Topiary Park. Right behind our downtown, beautiful marble library is a park with a topiary version of the painting, and it is a masterpiece. You can walk through it, the hedges evoke the pointillism, someone with a sense of humor made magic happen.
ha, I was reading along and then got to the part where you were talking about movies. Back to the Future? great movies. Somewhere in Time? oh yeah, I remember that. Terminator? a classic. But then: Hot Tub Time Machine??? About Time???!??! never even heard of it. And then it dawned on me - I had kids under 3 when those came out! Was too busy in the pool being a tug boat to be watching movies
I read this while rocking our 1 year old to sleep, and even after a pretty rough day with our 2.5 year old, it still gave me pre-nostalgia for the days we’re in right now.
Thanks for making me tear up (I don't even have kids!) in the waiting room at my dentist. Great job with the emotional terrorism this fine morning
I’ve had a nickname for ours since shortly after she was born, and I’ve been dreading the day that she sternly looks at me and tells me that she’s not that baby anymore.
Granted, I’m already plotting to put it in mental storage until just before I walk her down the aisle at her wedding someday. Emotional terrorism Uno reverse!
Our daughter has a given name, an “official” nickname (the one she goes by 98% of the time), and then I have the nickname I call her at bedtime. I will be devastated when she rebuffs the latter.
I’m glad to hear it hasn’t happened yet. Your kids are slightly older, so you’ve become my parenting canary.
When my daughter (also 8) was just starting to talk she couldn't say her brother's name. So she called him "Ga-Ga"... and then insisted we all do the same. That lasted for what felt like years, but was probably 9 months. Then one day, she reprimanded me (at 2) and said "Not Ga-Ga, Oscar". Now she is telling that story.
Just for the record, we do know that you are a shameless sentimentalist, and it is in fact an endearing quality.
Ah read this immediately after picking my 6.5 year old up and carrying him down the hall and saying "you now, pretty soon you're going to be too big for scoops like this. And I'll miss it."
So what I mean to say is there's tears here
My baby is 37. How is that possible? I am only 37 myself.
Being in Florida, I have been monitoring the track of Milton, but dang, didn't see this monster of an article coming down the pipeline. This is one of the best.
They’re all great ages, Scott. Even 27, which is what our “baby” turned this year.
my then-girlfriend (now-wife) and I were going through the rituals of sharing meaningful media with one another when we first started dating: movies we loved, albums, books, whatever. one day she was like "I love time travel stories, have you seen this movie About Time? we should watch it" and then I sobbed for two hours, having irrevocably changed my feelings about how my parents are aging
I happily do not have children myself, but as someone who saw his mother last week for the first time in a year and his father for the first time in nearly a decade, I am not made of stone.
In 10 days we are off to NC to visit our kids, (my step son and wife) and their babies, whom we once watched over a few days every week for five years. Your piece today so perfectly reflects my own thoughts as we look forward to seeing them again, I’d swear you were doing some kind of mind meld.
We FaceTime every week, but I feel them growing up and away with every call, and that’s as it should be, but is nevertheless too sweetly sad for words.
In his poem “On Children”, Khalil Gibran wrote, “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.".
I’ve always thought what a perfect metaphor it is, and a good reminder on how to let go.
Thank you again Scott for such a lovely piece.
Welp cool, another day tearing up at the ol' ACBN.
also ... also! Be shamelessly sentimental: it's better to live and love and revel in it, I think. I'm glad you are. I try to be.
I've learned to be careful when I get a notification from Outlook or Facebook about memories of that date, because sometimes it's a banal picture from a trip, but more often it's a picture from the double-pigtail/tutu years and it's like a punch in the gut to see. Also those toy kitchens are TRULY a nightmare to put together
I distinctly remember the Christmas Eve when I posted a picture of a glass of wine and the screws—just the screws—to the play kitchen we were assembling. *Multiple* people responded “oh, that’s the KidCraft kitchen… good luck.”
"I’m a shameless sentimentalist. You already know this about me, and hopefully it’s an endearing quality. It’s not something I can change, anyway,"
Scott if you think we are here for anything other than shameless sentimentality you haven't been paying attention. Thanks for the terrorism this morning.
Since your daughter loved 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte' you've got to get up to Columbus one of these days for Topiary Park. Right behind our downtown, beautiful marble library is a park with a topiary version of the painting, and it is a masterpiece. You can walk through it, the hedges evoke the pointillism, someone with a sense of humor made magic happen.
ha, I was reading along and then got to the part where you were talking about movies. Back to the Future? great movies. Somewhere in Time? oh yeah, I remember that. Terminator? a classic. But then: Hot Tub Time Machine??? About Time???!??! never even heard of it. And then it dawned on me - I had kids under 3 when those came out! Was too busy in the pool being a tug boat to be watching movies
Full heart. 💕
I read this while rocking our 1 year old to sleep, and even after a pretty rough day with our 2.5 year old, it still gave me pre-nostalgia for the days we’re in right now.