First, when you’re nine and your sister is five, it’s tough to deal with a REALLY annoying little sister. A sister who sings and talks and demands attention from the mother you adore. The mother you had to yourself until you were almost four years old and then, wham! Suddenly, there was this screaming baby who took her away from you. And since it’s still going on, it’s hard to keep the frustration at bay.
Another thing about being nine is that you want what you want when you want it but you’re old enough that people expect you to be patient, to be understanding, to wait your turn even when you don’t want to wait your turn.
Last Sunday Jaxon called Olivia to see if we were going to go to Grammy’s while he was there. Olivia squealed into the phone. Jaxon took this as a yes and handed the phone back to his Gram. She told me the boys (Jaxon, his dad and Mitch, my other brother) were there and they’d be there for another half hour.
Alyssa wanted to ride our bikes over. I explained to her that it would take us a half hour to get there on our bikes. Because of this, we were going to drive over and then we’d bike over later in the day.
She lost her nine year old mind. But only for a few minutes. She pouted, a few tears might have spilled out of her big blue eyes. She fretted and finally, I gently took her by the shoulders, made her look at me, told her to take a deep breath and asked her what was really bothering her.
She couldn’t articulate it. She just wanted to ride the bikes to Gram’s house.
I asked her if she understood that we would ride the bikes over later but if we actually wanted to see Jaxon, Jason and Mitchell, we needed to drive.
She shook her head dejectedly and went to brush her hair.
The issue was laid to rest but she was still a little pouty.
Because nine can be pouty. Nine can’t help the poutiness. Nine is on the cusp of something big but doesn’t quite understand what that big thing is.
Nine is old enough to have to clean out the cat’s litter boxes but isn’t quite old enough to set her own bedtime. Nine has to rinse her own dishes but has to ask permission to use the computer.
Nine is so confused by life in general and that leads to poutiness and irritation.
But nine still thinks her mom is awesome and the best parts of the day are when that annoying little pest of a sister is asleep and Mom and Nine can sit and talk or laugh or just have happy feet together while they watch television.
Nine gets to watch shows like Once Upon a Time and even the occasional episode of Grimm but Mom still won’t let Nine watch certain scenes from the latest movie in the Twilight Saga (consummating the marriage, anyone?)
Nine is hard and wants you to know that that little sister? She’s not nearly as special as everyone thinks she is. But she’ll defend that little sister to the ends of the earth if anyone else were to say such a thing. That’s a sentiment that is reserved for Nine alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment