Saturday's Old Photo
Saturday, March 8, 2008 at 11:11AM 
Well, three photos, actually.
Having oldest daughter back with us has reminded me once again that while the rest of us are gentle summer breezes, she is a whirlwind. From the day she was born, she has never stopped moving—unless she was sleeping or reading a book—often leaving chaos behind her. When she’s not here, we settle into a calm routine that suits the rest of us just fine, and when she comes back, we all have to readjust.
When she was a child, as long as she was awake, I couldn’t relax, because, for one thing, at any moment I might need to make a trip to the emergency room. At two, while I showered at my parent’s home, she went out the unlocked screen door and ended up standing in the roadway with a steam roller bearing down on her. That summer, she also rode her tricycle over a two and a half foot rock wall. Somewhere, there is video of her at fifteen, standing on the seat of her bike as it travels across the lawn, then flying headfirst over the handlebars as the bike tire hits a tree root.
There’ve been finger stitches (uneven parallel bars), toe stitches (mini-trampoline and balance beam), several dislocated knee caps and a few pieces of furniture destroyed, but no broken bones until she broke her toe performing that same aerial cartwheel shown above for the wee ones at the children’s home in South Africa.
While in South Africa, by the way, she did the world’s highest commercial bungee jump, amazingly, without incident.
In this photo she’s jumping rope while jumping on the pogo stick. If you could hear her, she might be counting “257, 258, 259…” or something like that as she jumped. Yep, she was always driven to do more and better.
When she was four or five, she and her younger brother rode in the car somewhere with my husband. He told me later that in the course of his conversation with them, he’d said, “If I hadn’t married your mother, she’d be a librarian somewhere.” Without skipping a beat, oldest daughter responded, “Well, if she hadn’t married you, you’d be in jail.”
Which is why I love her even if she sometimes turns my tidy world upside down.
[In one of life’s little ironies, I have recently become the librarian for my church. That explains, in part, why I’ve gone some days with very little or no blogging. I’ve been busy reorganizing and cataloging.]
Reader Comments (15)
I have a pogo-stick jump-roper as well. I keep hoping that someday his great leadership skills will be used for something other than teaching his younger siblings to climb to the roof of the shed.
Goodness. Don't we wish we had an nth of that energy?!
Whew! What a whirlwind, indeed! I especially like that first photo.
I have a pogo-stick jump-roper as well. I keep hoping that someday his great
leadership skills will be used for something other than teaching his younger
siblings to climb to the roof of the shed.
Ah, he's an energetic idea person, too.
There are big pluses with that sort of attitude and energy. Peer pressure tends not to big problem, since they're quite prepared to do what they want without much regards to the consequences. And when they get a good idea, they have all the energy and stick-to-itiveness needed to carry it out.
LOVED this post!
What a great kid! I love, love, love energetic, ornery, dare devil kids!
I am so not like that. In fact, I'd make a good librarian.
I so enjoyed reading this. Thanks for the glimpse into your family. What an interesting young woman!
What a great kid! I love, love, love energetic, ornery, dare devil kids!
I wish you'd been her kindergarten teacher. :)
I have one of those!
Loved the article. What is the next project, or adventure for oldest daughter?
Loved the article. What is the next project, or adventure for oldest daughter?
Off topic but....
I know the grill of a Datsun 510 anywhere. Was it yours?
You are off-topic, aren't you?
Yes, that's our old Datsun. Hated that car. It was known to strand me downtown with toddlers at 30 below and I was forced to hitch rides with strangers back to Riverdale.
That's our jimmy, too.
I suppose you recognize the apartment building, too.
What is the next project, or adventure for oldest daughter?
Nothing special planned yet.
I wish you'd been her kindergarten teacher. :)
I was a preschool teacher for many years and I admit I always had a special affection for the ornery ones!
I think that's why I love Ivy so much; she like an ornery little kid.
Rebecca, I loved this post! Your daughter sounds like such fun! And teaching kindergarten was also one of my favorite things!
Hope you have lots of surprise fun days this spring!