Good-bye, Good-bye to everything!

The wonderful thing about having a toddler in my house once a week are the delightful things she says and does when she's here.

Kaylee is constantly keeping us in stitches. (One of her favorite past times is to sing to herself and dance in front of the full-length mirror in the girls' room- too funny!)

Yesterday, she found me in the kitchen and said, "Hi, Shel!" I picked her up, and said, "Hi, Kaylee!" She looked at me very seriously, then put out her tiny hand and stroked my hair and said, "Pretty hair."

How sweet is that? It's so fun to see the world through her eyes, and remember what my children were like at that stage.

One thing every toddler loves to do is say "Good-bye" to everything and everyone, so when I read this poem from A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson yesterday to my two younger children, I thought immediately of Kaylee, and my own children at her age.

The toddler stage is exhausting - I remember it well, having had four children in five years. My aunt told me to enjoy the moments because they grow up so quickly. And it's so true! When Kaylee is here, I'm amazed at how grown-up my own children are, and like every mother, wonder "Where has the time gone?"

Farewell to the Farm

The coach is at the door at last;
The eager children, mounting fast
And kissing hands, in chorus sing:
Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!

To house and garden, field and lawn,
The meadow-gates we swang upon,
To pump and stable, tree and swing,
Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!

Ad fare you well for evermore,
O ladder at the hayloft door,
O hayloft where the cobwebs cling,
Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!

Crack goes the whip, and off we go;
The trees and houses smaller grow;
Last, round the woody turn we swing:
Good-bye, good-bye to everything!