As I walk around with my kids in tow, I can't tell you how often people are shocked by their age range. Most women want to have their babies, and be done with it. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing. My mother had 4 kids in 5 years. God bless her. I am just not built for all of that chaos. I would be in a room with rubber walls by now. I think most women are secretly thinking when they see me....Is she nuts? A 12 year old and a new born? I think people even thought that when there was 7 1/2 years between Alex and Amber. I know, I know, I will have a child in my house for a loooong time coming. I'm fine with that. I'm not looking for the age of 18 when I can push them out the door. I hope they all stay with me until they get married. As long as they get married by a reasonable age, that is. I love the gaps between my kids. They all have their own individual time to be the star of the show.
Amber was an only child for 7 1/2 years. We did so many things together. By the time she was 2, She had been to every show on ice, Disney World, The circus, Gymboree, Kinder music, dance class-you name it-we did it. We went to preschool together. She attended, I worked there. She got sooooo much one on one time with me. It was completely over done. Hey-I was 24 and a new mother. No, I did not make the same choices for my son. This was all way too excessive, and to this day she is pretty high maintenance when it comes to keeping busy and entertained. But I wouldn't change our life together. I only wish she remembered even half of it.
Alex-His time to shine has been while Amber is at school. Much more low key-he is a different child. He can't keep still for a half hour T.V. show-never mind a circus, or on line at Disney. So we share our special time together differently. We race matchbox cars down the hallway. We play Guess Who? We go on lunch dates. We go to the park. We swim. We play spy, and karate. We make playdough. We too go to preschool together, and come home together (at the same school! He had Amber's 3's teachers this year!) We go on bike rides. We race to the car, and he tells me: "Mom, only boys win races, not girls!!" He may not remember all of the details, but he will remember how much time we spent together-Mother and son.
Bella-Bella is my "li'l Mama". Right now we snuggle in the evenings, and in the early mornings. But if your following the pattern here, As I am dropping my son off for his first day of kindergarten (not this year, next year), I will hug and kiss my big boy, drop my big girl off at her last year of middle school, and my baby and I will head off to preschool-together-at the same school, and it will be her "Own Time to Shine".
To each is own, and there is no right or wrong way, but the way I was given my children was especially tailored for me, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
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