If you aren't new to my writing, you probably know my whole spiel about being an only child and only grandchild for fifteen years and then in one year, I was blessed with these two angel baby cousins, Aedan and Daisy. I suppose that when you are younger than five, every birthday is sort of a milestone birthday, but something about this year feels different to me. Five years is half a decade. Seeing how fast they're growing makes me realize that I've had five years of my own during that time too. When they were born, I was a Freshman in high school and now I am about to be a Junior in college.
Children have a special way of making us slow down and be in the moment. They have done that for me in some of the most fast-paced years of my life yet. In between college applications I was pushing them in swings at the park or making Christmas cookies. In between cheer pre-season there were beach days with sandy snuggles. There will always be new little kids to do this for me, but these two are special. I'd like for them to always be the ones to slow me down.
I now receive pictures of them from my aunts and instead of my first reply being "they're so cute," I reply "they look so big. "What stuns me the most is there isn't an exact day that that changed, it just did. By this I don't mean that they aren't cute anymore, I just mean that they are more and more grown up. And what is super crazy is I have the same feelings about these two that my aunts feel about me growing up. As much as I'd like to go on and on since I'm 99% sure you'd rather not spend your whole day reading about my cousins, I've listed five song lyrics that sum up how I feel about this very important birthday. If you crash their parties, I'll be the one crying in the corner.
1. "Never Grow Up" — Taylor Swift
Oh darling don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up
It could stay this simple
I won't let nobody hurt you
Won't let no one break your heart
No one will desert you
Just try to never grow up
Never grow up
(I used to sing this to them whenever I put them to sleep. Someone pass me the tissue box.)
2. "Landslide" — Fleetwood Mac
"Time makes you bolder, children get older and I'm getting older, too."
3. "Let Them Be Little" — Lonestar
"I can remember when you fit in the palm of my hand.
Felt so good in it, no bigger than a minute.
How it amazes me, you're changing with every blink.
Faster than a flower blooms they grow up all too soon."
4. "Most People Are Good" — Luke Bryan
"I believe that days go slow and years go fast."
5. "Wish For You" — Faith Hill
"A field of flowers dancing in the spring
A little creek, a tree, an old rope swing
Cotton candy clouds against the blue
That's the kind of day I wish for you"
