{"id":14591,"date":"2016-09-08T07:52:28","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T07:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/?p=14591"},"modified":"2016-09-08T07:52:28","modified_gmt":"2016-09-08T07:52:28","slug":"eighties-songs-fleeting-childhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/eighties-songs-fleeting-childhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Eighties Songs and Fleeting Childhood…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I don’t get to spend that much one on one time with my (not so) Small Girl at the moment, mostly thanks to her youngest brother who is now well and truly on the move (and into absolutely everything!)… \u00a0We can also blame her middle brother somewhat, with his apparent allergy to anything beginning with H (i.e. homework and anything housework orientated!), and his unfortunate tendency to lose both his PE Kit and lunchbox on an almost daily basis, which means we a) spend ages trying to find them, or b) spend ages scrabbling about for replacements before the next day…<\/p>\n

She absolutely never complains that nowadays there’s not much time for just me and her. \u00a0Come to think of it she rarely complains about her brothers either, even when the baby is going through a biting stage (which blinking hurts!) and when she is occasionally tempted to strangle her other brother thanks to usual sibling arguments. It doesn’t even occur to her that she might be hard done by. \u00a0It occurs to me though. \u00a0 From the day your baby is placed in your arms, Mother Nature forever makes sure you feel guilty about something it seems… \u00a0 And right now, as she embarks on this huge chapter that is starting life in secondary school, I could quite frankly do with spending more time with my (Not so) Small Girl before she goes right ahead and grows up before my eyes, leaves home to go to University, travels the world, eventually gets married and has kids of her own (when she’s finished being PM of England of course<\/a>!)…<\/p>\n

The above outburst may well have been inspired by having to listen to each and every word of ABBA’S Slipping Through my Fingers recently, on the rare occasion that the baby fell asleep on me and I couldn’t move to turn the radio over. \u00a0 I have never really been forced to listen to that song quite as intensively before (I was kind of holding my breath so he would sleep a little longer), and it completely made me sob. \u00a0In fact this actually woke the baby up, which meant I should have just switched the radio over anyway, and not endured the entire emotional episode…<\/p>\n

So before she doesn’t need me anymore, we carved 45 minutes of time with just us in the flower fields (sans little brothers<\/a>) last weekend (it’s a start!), surrounded by the most glorious gaudy colours, and bathed in the late summer sun. \u00a0 \u00a0And in that time, I managed to confirm my hopes that she’s happy, and taking everything about this new chapter of her life in her stride (despite the fact that this school is possibly even more intimidating than your typical secondary school environment as a) it’s in a Schloss where all the floors and doors to the rooms look confusingly the same, and b) the children are there until the age of 18, so there are even more huge people to feel incredibly small and inferior next to. \u00a0\u00a0Although I am somewhat jealous of the first part (as a child who finished school in the 90’s, my lessons were certainly not held in rooms with gilded ceilings – in fact if you dared to look up in any of my classrooms you were likely to either be hit in the face with a prittstick that had been dangling somewhat threateningly for some time, or a big fat wad of chewed up toilet roll!), you can keep the second part.<\/p>\n

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Whilst we deliberated over giant blooms (ignoring the biting midges and the threat of earwigs – does anyone know if it’s actually true that they like to live inside dahlias?), I had time to really concentrate on what she was saying. \u00a0 I could listen to her all her likes and dislikes, which lessons were interesting, and who is the most annoying boy in her class. \u00a0 I also helped her revise for a couple of language tests (she’s taken on Chinese this year, I won’t be helping with that one!) without any kind of little brother interruption or a “sorry, I am a little busy right now”, from me… And in future, the odd afternoon alone is something I am going to try and achieve with all of my brood – although the baby obviously doesn’t get much choice about how much time he gets to spend with me right now!<\/p>\n

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Picking Dahlias with the Small Girl (who did her own hair today!!!)… All this lot for around \u20ac7 (price is per flower so it’s a great maths exercise too! 😂)… #pyo #instabloom #flowers<\/a><\/p>\n

A photo posted by Emma (@bavariansojourn) on

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And at the end of our time there, as she stood with our slightly over the top ginormous bunch resting against her shoulder, I caught a glimpse of the young woman she is becoming, and did my best to block that bloody song out of my head before the tears threatened. \u00a0What happened to the tiny 4 year old that we embarked on this expat journey with?\"img_9895\"<\/a><\/p>\n

PS<\/em>. \u00a0To my friends whose children will leave to go to University on foreign soil in the next week or so, I cannot imagine what you must be feeling right now. \u00a0You know where I am x<\/em><\/p>\n

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