Cari And the Newel Post

Cari is my first child and was the first grandchild on both sides. My husband is the only child to have his own children and there were no girls so my mother-in-law was absolutely thrilled. She was able to dress a little girl in all the frilly clothes she wanted to. We have pictures to prove it and I will admit she was just too adorable in those frilly dresses.

After we survived her first nine months, (she was such a colicky baby), we found out she was a fearless child. My brothers liked to give my husband and in-laws near heart attacks because of the way they played with Cari. She was tossed, thrown, nearly dropped, and used like a sack of potatoes. In other words, they seriously feared she would be dropped on her head. My brothers were only following how they were raised.

My dad was good at throwing children around. There are pictures of my dad holding me by my calves while I was stiff as a board and laid horizontally stretched out six feet off the floor. It turns out I was pretty fearless too. Dad would play with me the same way my brothers were playing with Cari. He played with my brothers the same way. They never dropped her, but my in-laws were never sure.

I found out exactly how fearless she was when I went to pick her up at my mom’s one day. My brothers just HAD to show me what Cari was doing now. My mom lived in a house with an open staircase so it had a newel post. This newel post was rather large. It was large enough to hold a small child, namely Cari. One of my brothers would stand her on top of the newel post and then say, “Jump!” She blindly trusted them so much she would jump with everything she had. I just laughed. Cari was so proud of herself she started reaching for the post so she could jump again! She had no doubt they would catch her and she loved the exhilaration of the “game”.

She has not changed much since then. She now has her own child who is as fearless as she was. She even runs like her mama. It is like going back almost 25 years. Watching Paige reminds me of how much fun and joy Cari gave me, (and still does), when she was growing up. I cherish those memories more than she realizes. Memories are what makes us tick and drives us on.