14 October 2016
Thought I’d tell you a little bit about your mom when she was a little girl . . . no worries though, we’ll talk about her again somewhere down the road . . . after she’s mothered you for a little while. I just figured you’d like to know what kind of kid she was . . . because you only know her as an adult. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t think my parents were ever children . . . they were entirely too old!!
Your mom was born way out west . . . in Idaho Falls (that’s in Idaho you know) . . . just after a huge winter storm . . . we had nearly 6 feet of snow on the ground! Your grandfather spent the days leading up to her due date working diligently . . . keeping the driveway cleared . . . just in case she came early. True to her very nature, she actually arrived on the very date the doctor predicted . . . January 27th (I hope you won’t make her late . . . she HATES to be late . . . if you do, try not to sweat it . . . she made me late a few times). I was nervous getting to the hospital, but we made it without incident . . . she made her debut that afternoon. Tiny little thing . . . but lungs . . . she had some big lungs!
I’d been around babies all my life, but this was new . . . ten tiny fingers . . . ten perfect little toes . . . the cutest little button nose . . . and NO hair . . . none . . . well, fuzz maybe. She was such a good baby . . . basically slept on cue . . . rarely cried . . . but she puked up everything she ate, so she stayed pretty little . . . 10th percentile they said.
As she grew, she became a delight to be around . . . even when life disagreed with her . . . which it quite often did . . . she liked things to go her way! And she loved people!! Spoke to everyone she passed! Occasionally getting her tender feelings hurt if someone didn’t greet her in return, she’d put her sweet face into my shoulder and ask why they wouldn’t speak to her. Try and explain THAT to a 2 year old!
We had a few scary moments with her! The time she ate dried drywall mud right off the wall prompted a panicked phone call to poison control who did their best to reassure me it was not poisonous. She scarfed a handful of Cheerios once . . . so many that they got caught in her windpipe . . . her dad had to get them out with his fingers. She put her head through the stair railing and got stuck . . . I couldn’t get her out . . . her dad had to pry the bars apart so I could pull her backward. There was the overnight in the hospital . . . dehydration . . . I’d never seen so many noodles come out of such a tiny human before. She loved to be barefoot . . . hated shoes . . . and wound up with a very large splinter in her heel . . . that encounter made me sweat bullets as she’d wrapped herself tightly around me while the doctor extracted it! Flipped head first over the handlebars of her bicycle just after she learned to ride it without training wheels . . . she screamed she couldn’t see as her father was carrying her to the house . . . I screamed “Open your eyes!” She busted two teeth . . . permanent ones . . . when she fell face first into a brick wall . . . quick trip to the ER and then to the dentist who graciously met us at 7pm the night before Thanksgiving!! The gym covered the walls with padding after that incident. Febrile seizures that began at the age of 7 prompted several trips to the ER . . . it took 3 years for me to convince the doctors to remove her tonsils . . . the seizures, in my opinion, were likely due to ongoing infection. Even after those were removed and the seizures stopped, the doctors still denied there was a connection . . . yeah, right! A broken wrist . . . I told her it was just sprained and made her wait 24 hours before going to the ER . . . yep, broken wrist! There was glass . . . she got a shard of glass in her heel . . . screamed when the doctor dug that out . . . I nearly passed out myself! And then the wreck . . . she ran directly into the side of a truck that turned in front of her . . . that’s the one that scared me out my wits . . . she was shaken but fine . . . I don’t believe I’ve ever recovered from it.
Your mom was actually born to be a mom. I know that sounds weird, but she started early . . . just after her sister, Erika, was born. She wanted so badly to be the mommy . . . so much so that I resorted to saying on a daily basis “Caitlain, I’m the mommy.” After a while she just called me “The Mommy” . . . not mom, not mommy, not mama . . . THE mommy.
She was pretty fearless too . . . usually the first to do most anything . . . and generally without thought of consequence. That bicycle she learned to ride? Yeah, she took that to the top of our street . . . we lived at the bottom of a cul-de-sac . . . I thought she would walk it back down . . . she did not. Thankfully she was wearing a helmet . . . something I rarely made her do! We hiked a lot when we lived out west too, and she often ran ahead of us which terrified me because there were cougars and grizzlies out there . . . I was forever calling her back. Not long after one of our hikes, a little boy was dragged off one of the trails by a cougar . . . I didn’t let her run ahead anymore.
Though she went to preschool, it was in kindergarten that the parent-teacher conferences began. The first one came a week after school started . . . A WEEK! Remember that whole “The Mommy” bit? Yeah. The teacher called me in to let me know that your mom wouldn’t stay in her seat and finish her own work . . . she was up helping all of the other kids with their work . . . giving instructions . . . suggesting which colors to use . . . sharing answers. I sighed and told the teacher that she needed to let Caitlain know who “The Teacher” was. Thankfully THAT tactic worked. By second grade I was meeting with the teachers in the first week to let them know how to handle things. On top of that, I had to get the second grade teacher to limit her to 3 colors if they had to color something . . . that box of 64 crayons? Yeah, she used them all . . . on everything!
She loved Sunday school . . . LOVED Sunday school!! For some odd reason she didn’t try to take over in those classes. The story of Noah was one of her favorites because she had this thing for animals (probably stemmed from watching Animal Planet so much) . . . and she was fascinated by the fact that Noah got them all on the boat. This love would eventually lead her to become a preschool Sunday school teacher . . . we like to refer to her as the “Pied Piper” in church because kids just follow her around!
Your mom was also a very compliant child for the most part and followed instruction quite readily. She’ll probably tell you she was terrified of me, but I’m not sure that was the whole reason she was good . . . she’s a people pleaser . . . always has been . . . still is. Don’t doubt for a minute that she didn’t test me, but it hurt her heart to displease me . . . or any adult for that matter. Disrespect was just not in her nature.
About the time she reached 4th or 5th grade, she discovered how cruel other children could be, and at that point your mom was hurt quite a bit. It never, however, completely deterred her from being kind to everyone. She’d come home hurt . . . in tears on one day . . . then go right back the next day . . . to school or scouts or camp . . . and try her best to befriend her tormentor . . . never fully understanding why some people simply could not be nice. She only wanted to be treated with kindness.
I pray you have her compassion . . . and her kindness. But you don’t have to be a doormat . . . it is okay to stand up for yourself.
John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
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| Snake River in Idaho Falls |
Thought I’d tell you a little bit about your mom when she was a little girl . . . no worries though, we’ll talk about her again somewhere down the road . . . after she’s mothered you for a little while. I just figured you’d like to know what kind of kid she was . . . because you only know her as an adult. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t think my parents were ever children . . . they were entirely too old!!
Your mom was born way out west . . . in Idaho Falls (that’s in Idaho you know) . . . just after a huge winter storm . . . we had nearly 6 feet of snow on the ground! Your grandfather spent the days leading up to her due date working diligently . . . keeping the driveway cleared . . . just in case she came early. True to her very nature, she actually arrived on the very date the doctor predicted . . . January 27th (I hope you won’t make her late . . . she HATES to be late . . . if you do, try not to sweat it . . . she made me late a few times). I was nervous getting to the hospital, but we made it without incident . . . she made her debut that afternoon. Tiny little thing . . . but lungs . . . she had some big lungs!
I’d been around babies all my life, but this was new . . . ten tiny fingers . . . ten perfect little toes . . . the cutest little button nose . . . and NO hair . . . none . . . well, fuzz maybe. She was such a good baby . . . basically slept on cue . . . rarely cried . . . but she puked up everything she ate, so she stayed pretty little . . . 10th percentile they said.
As she grew, she became a delight to be around . . . even when life disagreed with her . . . which it quite often did . . . she liked things to go her way! And she loved people!! Spoke to everyone she passed! Occasionally getting her tender feelings hurt if someone didn’t greet her in return, she’d put her sweet face into my shoulder and ask why they wouldn’t speak to her. Try and explain THAT to a 2 year old!
We had a few scary moments with her! The time she ate dried drywall mud right off the wall prompted a panicked phone call to poison control who did their best to reassure me it was not poisonous. She scarfed a handful of Cheerios once . . . so many that they got caught in her windpipe . . . her dad had to get them out with his fingers. She put her head through the stair railing and got stuck . . . I couldn’t get her out . . . her dad had to pry the bars apart so I could pull her backward. There was the overnight in the hospital . . . dehydration . . . I’d never seen so many noodles come out of such a tiny human before. She loved to be barefoot . . . hated shoes . . . and wound up with a very large splinter in her heel . . . that encounter made me sweat bullets as she’d wrapped herself tightly around me while the doctor extracted it! Flipped head first over the handlebars of her bicycle just after she learned to ride it without training wheels . . . she screamed she couldn’t see as her father was carrying her to the house . . . I screamed “Open your eyes!” She busted two teeth . . . permanent ones . . . when she fell face first into a brick wall . . . quick trip to the ER and then to the dentist who graciously met us at 7pm the night before Thanksgiving!! The gym covered the walls with padding after that incident. Febrile seizures that began at the age of 7 prompted several trips to the ER . . . it took 3 years for me to convince the doctors to remove her tonsils . . . the seizures, in my opinion, were likely due to ongoing infection. Even after those were removed and the seizures stopped, the doctors still denied there was a connection . . . yeah, right! A broken wrist . . . I told her it was just sprained and made her wait 24 hours before going to the ER . . . yep, broken wrist! There was glass . . . she got a shard of glass in her heel . . . screamed when the doctor dug that out . . . I nearly passed out myself! And then the wreck . . . she ran directly into the side of a truck that turned in front of her . . . that’s the one that scared me out my wits . . . she was shaken but fine . . . I don’t believe I’ve ever recovered from it.
Your mom was actually born to be a mom. I know that sounds weird, but she started early . . . just after her sister, Erika, was born. She wanted so badly to be the mommy . . . so much so that I resorted to saying on a daily basis “Caitlain, I’m the mommy.” After a while she just called me “The Mommy” . . . not mom, not mommy, not mama . . . THE mommy.
She was pretty fearless too . . . usually the first to do most anything . . . and generally without thought of consequence. That bicycle she learned to ride? Yeah, she took that to the top of our street . . . we lived at the bottom of a cul-de-sac . . . I thought she would walk it back down . . . she did not. Thankfully she was wearing a helmet . . . something I rarely made her do! We hiked a lot when we lived out west too, and she often ran ahead of us which terrified me because there were cougars and grizzlies out there . . . I was forever calling her back. Not long after one of our hikes, a little boy was dragged off one of the trails by a cougar . . . I didn’t let her run ahead anymore.
Though she went to preschool, it was in kindergarten that the parent-teacher conferences began. The first one came a week after school started . . . A WEEK! Remember that whole “The Mommy” bit? Yeah. The teacher called me in to let me know that your mom wouldn’t stay in her seat and finish her own work . . . she was up helping all of the other kids with their work . . . giving instructions . . . suggesting which colors to use . . . sharing answers. I sighed and told the teacher that she needed to let Caitlain know who “The Teacher” was. Thankfully THAT tactic worked. By second grade I was meeting with the teachers in the first week to let them know how to handle things. On top of that, I had to get the second grade teacher to limit her to 3 colors if they had to color something . . . that box of 64 crayons? Yeah, she used them all . . . on everything!
She loved Sunday school . . . LOVED Sunday school!! For some odd reason she didn’t try to take over in those classes. The story of Noah was one of her favorites because she had this thing for animals (probably stemmed from watching Animal Planet so much) . . . and she was fascinated by the fact that Noah got them all on the boat. This love would eventually lead her to become a preschool Sunday school teacher . . . we like to refer to her as the “Pied Piper” in church because kids just follow her around!
Your mom was also a very compliant child for the most part and followed instruction quite readily. She’ll probably tell you she was terrified of me, but I’m not sure that was the whole reason she was good . . . she’s a people pleaser . . . always has been . . . still is. Don’t doubt for a minute that she didn’t test me, but it hurt her heart to displease me . . . or any adult for that matter. Disrespect was just not in her nature.
About the time she reached 4th or 5th grade, she discovered how cruel other children could be, and at that point your mom was hurt quite a bit. It never, however, completely deterred her from being kind to everyone. She’d come home hurt . . . in tears on one day . . . then go right back the next day . . . to school or scouts or camp . . . and try her best to befriend her tormentor . . . never fully understanding why some people simply could not be nice. She only wanted to be treated with kindness.
I pray you have her compassion . . . and her kindness. But you don’t have to be a doormat . . . it is okay to stand up for yourself.
John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
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