Our 5- and 1/2-year-old grandson was hanging out with us recently and when his mom came to pick him up, he gave her a hug and then looked up and said, “I’m almost as tall as you!” Now, his mama is short, I’m guessing 5’ 2 or 3”, but we adults were all chuckling as she is still almost twice his height. To him, he was getting closer to that all desired soon to be attained – “I’m as tall as a parent” measurement. Poor momma did not look quite as pleased as he did. This is her last baby speaking. There will be no more children, so she is already feeling the loss of his young, little ages as they are rapidly dwindling. And he drives the knife in with “I’m almost as tall as you.”
How many of you have pen, pencil, or marker lines on one of your door frames? I know a few; including myself. Those little ones look up to us, literally, and can’t wait to be as tall as us. So, we keep track for them to see how fast they are growing. It’s a favorite thing to do in our house. Sometimes they don’t think about it when they are visiting and other times they walk past that doorframe and get all excited. “Grandma, Grandma, will you measure me?!” There is great disappointment if they haven’t grown at all – or if they shrank, which has been known to happen (I have to wonder who measured them the last time, or if there was some tippy-toe action that took place – they always swear there wasn’t). But if they have had a good growth spurt or haven’t been measured in some time, the joy on their faces is worth the slight sorrow in our hearts as we see them growing out of childhood bit by bit. One day those years are suddenly over, and they are marking their own time without our help.
But we love their growth spurts and learning curves and all the fun they give us. Like measuring Buzz Lightyear on The Door Frame. Whether we are measuring for posterity, for challenges, or just for fun, it doesn’t matter. From the shortest participant (Buzz) to the tallest of the uncles, who hasn’t been beat for height yet, we have enjoyed every measurement of the game of growth.
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