Tempus Fugit
I can't quite believe it's been seven years since Samantha was born, but there it is. Seven years ago today (yesterday, I suppose, since it's after midnight when I'm writing this) we got up early and drove to the hospital. I never stopped to reflect on how unusual it is to know exactly what day and time your child is going to be born.
Seven years ago today (yesterday) this tiny little thing entered the world, and I experienced that moment that I think many parents go through, when you hold your kid for the first time and you literally cannot remember life before this person was part of it, even though life before this person was part of it was all of about 15 minutes ago. It's a very strange feeling, but when I've described it to other parents most of them say "Yeah, that moment. I had that too." And now this tiny person is already well on the way to having her own life. She has her own friends, her own interests, her own social circle that we're not part of and know relatively little about. But at the same time she's more attached to us than she'd be willing to let on unless she's exhausted or upset about something, when all she wants is to sleep in our bed.
Seven must be a hard age, caught between wanting to be with your parents and wanting to be anywhere but with your parents.
Since her birthday came on a Saturday this year we were able to have her party on her actual birthday, which doesn't usually happen. We rented out part of Sacco's Bowl Haven, a candlepin bowling alley in Somerville, for a couple of hours and brought in snacks and fruit, juice boxes, coffee, far too much pizza, birthday cake, ice cream, and whatnot. So the kids -- all 28 of them, plus parents -- bowled and snacked and bowled and ate pizza and bowled and had cake and bowled some more.
There's nothing quite like 28 screaming children hurling candlepin bowling balls down the lanes with as much force as they can muster (which isn't all that much) and absolutely no sense of aim. I'd be surprised if the whole bunch of them knocked down 50 pins between them in the two hours we were there. But that's not important. They all had a great time, Joshua enthralled several of the 6 and 7 year old girls who just love to pick him up and hug him and look after him (and he revels in the attention), and Samantha had a very good birthday.
Seven years ago today (yesterday) this tiny little thing entered the world, and I experienced that moment that I think many parents go through, when you hold your kid for the first time and you literally cannot remember life before this person was part of it, even though life before this person was part of it was all of about 15 minutes ago. It's a very strange feeling, but when I've described it to other parents most of them say "Yeah, that moment. I had that too." And now this tiny person is already well on the way to having her own life. She has her own friends, her own interests, her own social circle that we're not part of and know relatively little about. But at the same time she's more attached to us than she'd be willing to let on unless she's exhausted or upset about something, when all she wants is to sleep in our bed.
Seven must be a hard age, caught between wanting to be with your parents and wanting to be anywhere but with your parents.
Since her birthday came on a Saturday this year we were able to have her party on her actual birthday, which doesn't usually happen. We rented out part of Sacco's Bowl Haven, a candlepin bowling alley in Somerville, for a couple of hours and brought in snacks and fruit, juice boxes, coffee, far too much pizza, birthday cake, ice cream, and whatnot. So the kids -- all 28 of them, plus parents -- bowled and snacked and bowled and ate pizza and bowled and had cake and bowled some more.
There's nothing quite like 28 screaming children hurling candlepin bowling balls down the lanes with as much force as they can muster (which isn't all that much) and absolutely no sense of aim. I'd be surprised if the whole bunch of them knocked down 50 pins between them in the two hours we were there. But that's not important. They all had a great time, Joshua enthralled several of the 6 and 7 year old girls who just love to pick him up and hug him and look after him (and he revels in the attention), and Samantha had a very good birthday.
posted by Matt Landau | 1:01 AM
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