I am up early nowadays making breakfast for a middle schooler and catching a moment of conversation with her before she goes out the door to catch the morning bus. 


There is nothing about waking up early that I like, but I do like my daughter to know I care enough about her to wake up with her.  And I don't want her to wake up to a dark house and have to eat cold cereal by herself. 


There was nothing I liked about waking up early, until I noticed a repeated pattern happening every morning in my house. There I am in the kitchen half awake making breakfast, sometimes talking to Jade quietly, when I hear a pair of little feet going "stomp", "stomp", "stomp" down the stairs. Listening to the sound, I know those little feet are not walking, they are sliding to the edge of each step and then hopping down lightly to the next. Then I will look up in anticipation, until I see a pink-faced, bright-smiled little girl peek her head out from where the stairs disappear behind the wall. 


Our eyes find each other.


Then she always says with a burst of laugher: "MOM-mmee, I am awake!"


Oh, yes she is. Then she hops down the rest of the stairs and runs to me for a tight squeeze and a fresh morning kiss. 
How I love my baby Sage.


I tell her so, that she is my baby. To this, she looks at me straight faced and says to me very solemnly: "I've grown up. I am a child."


I look at her, and I know she is right. 


The other day I took her to a fast food place to meet a friend (gosh darn me, after my previous post I still dare to feed her fast food), and she was playing in the play place and was trying to solve some issue about a child not willing to share. Not successfully.  She turned around, surveying the moms who were sitting nearby, and announced with gusto: "I need a mommy now!"


She is in Sunbeams this year. I get to see all of my kids on Sundays in primary. I cherish that. But inside I am feeling like an empty nester.


I heard her saying this to her teacher in sharing time:
"After she (the girl giving a talk) is done, is it my turn?"
"No."
Sigh. "I am so beautiful."


Sage- She is an old soul trapped in a small body.


My quiet morning with Jade quickly vanishes with Sage greeting the world with unceasing chattering and questioning until my ears are full of her little voice. I beg: "Can you please stop talking for a minute?"
Yet, she talks and talks and talks...


I know she will grow out of that eventually, she will want to talk more to her friends on the phone than to me. But for now, I am thankful I am still the first person she wants to see first thing every morning. And to tell you the truth, she has a wonderfully cute voice even if it does hurt my ear and my nerves.