thanks for the memories

Friday, September 29, 2017

Moments

Lately I have only been able to think in moments. Brief flashes of memory, peeks into the window of ideas, and squinty looks at the world around me are all I have been able to take in and process.
Little boys and tall giraffes.

Taking in the thoughts of zebras.

Impressions of cousins eating lunch and having conversations that exist way above my intellect.

The special communication that happens between a 90 year-old woman and a 4 year-old child.





The days go ever onward

 Ever notice that no matter how much we want things to slow down or even to stop they just keep going inexorably on? Yeah, me too.  Sometimes it feels like one is a snowball rolling down a hill taking on bulk and speed along with the momentum down the slope. Sort of like the way that this little boy has grown.
Really mom could you at ease the camera for just a little while?
It is hard to believe that he once spent two weeks in the NICU as a tiny little mite fighting to breathe and heal. Now he is in possession of his own little personality and a whole toddler skill set.

While it is going on the purchase of a new home can seem like it goes at a snail's pace but then the moving in process is a whole 'nuther story!  Now that we are settled it seems like the days fly by and I often want to reach out and grab them and hold on just a moment longer before they are gone for good.


 The good times, time spent with those that I love, live on in my minds eye and in my heart and that makes up, in part, for the speed with which they pass.  This day spent hiking, laughing, and generally wearing kids out so they would sleep on the drive south cannot be captured and held adequately by a picture, and yet....

Children will continue to feed giraffes,

and cousins will be silly together.

Young boys will dig and shape their future along with the lessons learned in the process while old grandmas will watch it all with tears welling in their eyes and hearts that overflow with joy.

Friday, September 8, 2017

Firsts and celebrating the moments.

Today is the first day of school for most of the kids in this area.  What an easy week you may think (I'm thinking the same thing) When I was growing up we started the day after Labor Day.  But I digress from the point of my thoughts.  In my many years of being a parent and now grandparent I have helped celebrate many things large and small and the cynical part of me can't help but think of the line from the Pixar movie, "The Incredible's," that refers to these minor celebrations as excuses for marking mediocrity.  From a certain point of view that comment may be true but from another point of view mediocrity is hardly what is being feted.  

Today Christopher started pre-school and for a three-year-old it was a big deal to spend half of his day with those who are not family for the first time in his life.  This kid has a hard enough time spending a few hours with grandma!  (all you family members can stop snickering now)  I walked up to the school at noon to pick him up since it is far more convenient for me to go three blocks than it is for his mom to pack his sister into the van and drive 6 miles to get him.  All the way back here he chattered on about birds, grass, big trucks, and where Uncle is today at the same speed that his little feet were going.  At a break in the conversation I asked him if he remembered whose birthday it was today and he immediately came back with "Mother Mary's birthday."

I then began to tell him how pleased she is that he was a good boy at school and how she is happy to help him learn if he only remembers to ask her each day for her help.  In unique little boy style he asked if he could have his lunch with Mother Mary and help her have a happy birthday.  No mediocrity in this celebration! The simplicity of the request and the plainness in the execution of the "party" are all the commemoration that his first day of school needs to fix it in his little boy memory forever.