"why should they grow up, and lose all that?" (v. woolf)

i'm working on to the lighthouse this afternoon and i always pause at this passage which i confess to wishing just a wee bit when i see owen play with such joy and abandon:

Oh, but she never wanted James to grow a day older! or Cam either. These two she would have liked to keep for ever just as they were, demons of wickedness, angels of delight, never to see them grow up into long-legged monsters.

and then of course here is owen yesterday at disneyland sad because he didn't meet the height requirement for the sea jelly parachutes, and then suddenly joyful as he shouts "but mommy i AM bigger! i AM!". and what is a mother to do?