Last Of The Single Digits

Yesterday was Maya's 9th birthday.  For being the youngest of our five children, she's certainly not shy about setting the proper expectations on how her birthday should be executed.  Her preferred agenda included pancakes for breakfast, and then I was to join her at school for lunch with a Happy Meal in hand and the cupcakes that Christy was to make for all of her classmates and teachers.  Then Christy would pick her up after school and take her directly to Build-A-Bear, where they would use a Build-A-Bear coupon to build a Build-A-Bear bear.  Upon returning home with said bear, there would be a dinner party, with family and friends, the menu of which would consist of Christy's famous homemade chicken pockets and side dishes of salad and/or fruit, which Maya could elect to opt out of at her discretion.  We would then open the "PRESENTS (DUH!)", which is the precise wording Maya used on her prepared agenda for the day.  Then would come the fancy six-layer birthday cake, prepared by cake ace Christy, that would be enjoyed by all with a scoop of ice cream.  Maya would then elect to stay up later than her usual bed time so she could enjoy her new gifts, and bask in the general glow of birthday-dom.

That was the agenda.  Thankfully for us, everything went like clockwork, and the birthday was a success!  This allowed us all to have a happy birthday, and relax knowing that Maya's wishes were granted.  Not that we're afraid of her or anything like that.  Don't be silly.  We have just found over the past nine years that life is much simpler when Maya's expectations are satisfied.  Really, though, we're not afraid of her.  Why do you keep thinking that?

And as the day wound down, and we had a moment to reflect, it occurred to us that this was the final year of our last single-digit kid.  We have but one more year to say to the world that we are parents of a child whose age is but one digit.  For nearly twenty years, we've always been able to make that claim.  It's kept us feeling young, and appearing young to new acquaintances.  But those days are numbered now.  Three hundred and sixty-four, if anyone is counting.  Then, all of our children will have two digits in their ages, and that is how it will be the rest of our lives.

This means something.  We can stop our kids from creating messes, punching each other in the face, making dumb mistakes and a host of other unwanted actions.  But, we can't stop them from this -- from growing older.  And that's the thing we wish we could stop most of all.

So for now, we'll relish these times and appreciate them for what they are - the best times of our lives up to now.  As each moment is perished a memory is cherished.  And as Christy said last night, for the next year we'll tell as many people as we can that we have, among our five children, one who is merely nine years old.  Why, she's just a babe.  Just a cute little kid.  A kid who, as we said, really acts more like a teen sometimes.  A mere child who lays down the law, and who makes her wishes known, and expects things to be done a certain way.  And when we do them right, like we seemed to do for her birthday yesterday, life is good, happy and wonderful.

Yes, we can relax now.

Did we mention to you that we’re not afraid of her?