The teen is finished with grade 10 (standard 8 for the old folks). She wrote her last exam paper the previous Thursday. Now it is only two more important years left in High School. Very soon she needs to decide what she is going to do with her life!
Scary that they grow up so quickly! I saw Yvonne’s posting on her second daughter who has also completed her grade 7, and how sad she feels about them moving on.
I have been trying to think about all the cute things that Arnia did when she was little. I know there were many, and that she was SUPER CUTE! But I can’t remember the small detail. That’s why I want to blog about Mieka and the things she do.
I remember Arnia with her thumb. She refused to take a bottle when I had to go back to work. At four months I was forced to take her off the breast to get her to drink a bottle. She started to suck her thumb after that, and it was only at ten years of age when she had to get braces that she stopped sucking her thumb. A GOOD reason why they should not suck their thumbs, but unfortunately it is not something that you can take away such as a dummy!
At one stage I painted very bad-tasting stuff I got from the chemist on her thumb while she was sleeping. She was about six or seven years at the time. She could not understand why her thumb tasted so bad, and resorted to her left thumb. I felt sorry for her when I saw how confused she looked every time she put her thumb in her mouth. It was very funny to see the expression on her face. I could not do it for too long, and caved in after only one or two nights of her struggling with her thumbs:
Right thumb goes into mouth. Horrified look on face. Inspection of the thumb. Another try. Even more horrified look. Inspection of thumb again. Left thumb into mouth. Uncomfortable sucking of the alien thumb.
“Mom, why does my thumb taste so bad?”
“I don’t know, maybe it is rotting because you sucked it rotten?”
(Shame on you, Karen! The lies we tell them. I plan to do it less with Mieka!)
The thumb also came with the blanket. My mom bought a white blanket with a blue teddy bear imprint on the blanket, and Arnia took a liking to it from the start. She used to take the blanket everywhere, and worked her thumb through a hole in the blanket to suck it. It was a very big blanket, and she used to drag it behind her. When I had to wash the blanket, I had to promise her to put it back in her hand the same evening, which I always did. The blanket was far from white, and it was torn when she finally gave it to her dog after she stopped sucking her thumb…
With hindsight: I should have worried less about the thumb and the blanket – the braces sorted out the skew teeth and peer pressure prevented her from taking the blanket to school. (Smile) Today she is a beautiful lady, and we still remind her with fondness about the thumb and her blanky!
Scary that they grow up so quickly! I saw Yvonne’s posting on her second daughter who has also completed her grade 7, and how sad she feels about them moving on.
I have been trying to think about all the cute things that Arnia did when she was little. I know there were many, and that she was SUPER CUTE! But I can’t remember the small detail. That’s why I want to blog about Mieka and the things she do.
I remember Arnia with her thumb. She refused to take a bottle when I had to go back to work. At four months I was forced to take her off the breast to get her to drink a bottle. She started to suck her thumb after that, and it was only at ten years of age when she had to get braces that she stopped sucking her thumb. A GOOD reason why they should not suck their thumbs, but unfortunately it is not something that you can take away such as a dummy!
At one stage I painted very bad-tasting stuff I got from the chemist on her thumb while she was sleeping. She was about six or seven years at the time. She could not understand why her thumb tasted so bad, and resorted to her left thumb. I felt sorry for her when I saw how confused she looked every time she put her thumb in her mouth. It was very funny to see the expression on her face. I could not do it for too long, and caved in after only one or two nights of her struggling with her thumbs:
Right thumb goes into mouth. Horrified look on face. Inspection of the thumb. Another try. Even more horrified look. Inspection of thumb again. Left thumb into mouth. Uncomfortable sucking of the alien thumb.
“Mom, why does my thumb taste so bad?”
“I don’t know, maybe it is rotting because you sucked it rotten?”
(Shame on you, Karen! The lies we tell them. I plan to do it less with Mieka!)
The thumb also came with the blanket. My mom bought a white blanket with a blue teddy bear imprint on the blanket, and Arnia took a liking to it from the start. She used to take the blanket everywhere, and worked her thumb through a hole in the blanket to suck it. It was a very big blanket, and she used to drag it behind her. When I had to wash the blanket, I had to promise her to put it back in her hand the same evening, which I always did. The blanket was far from white, and it was torn when she finally gave it to her dog after she stopped sucking her thumb…
With hindsight: I should have worried less about the thumb and the blanket – the braces sorted out the skew teeth and peer pressure prevented her from taking the blanket to school. (Smile) Today she is a beautiful lady, and we still remind her with fondness about the thumb and her blanky!
I remember how often we tried to barter with Arnia to give the blanket to our two dachshunds. Sometimes she would give it up just for a little while.... She has grown up so quickly and I can't believe she only have two years of school left.
ReplyDeleteFunny to look back on this all and realise:it feels like yesterday. She has truly grown up into a lovely young lady! Well done Karen, you did an awesome job under very difficult circumstances. And through it all, you always remained cheerful and positive. You have all my admiration for that.
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