The Wink

Finley is four, the kind of four you get with a kid who has two older sisters and no younger siblings. She is precocious, lethally charismatic, fiendishly able to take command in just about any scenario and, lastly, she is preternaturally able to hold on to the qualities of a baby. When I lean into kiss her, the crown of her head still tickles with a scent that fills me with the memories of coming home from the hospital and from peeking over crib rails in the night “just to be sure.”  She’ll be five in a few months, next year she will go to kindergarten and I am realizing with alarming force the significance of the age 4 to this family.

It’s why I love today’s This is Childhood post so very, very much. Never before had I understood so keenly why it is Finley and I can still dance like we did four years ago then when I read Galit’s line:

“My third child, the only four-year-old I’ve ever deemed my baby.”

Please go and read a lovely post about four from Galit Breen.

Aidan Donnelley Rowley Age 1

Kristen Levithan Age 2

Nina Badzin Age 3

Galit Breen Age 4

Allison Slater Tate Age 5

Bethany Meyer Age 6

Tracy Morrison Age 7

Age 8 by me and inspired by Briar

Denise Ullem Age 9

Lindsey Mead Age 10