Time: Part 4,861
If you follow my ramblings with any regularity, it is likely that due to the very quantity of posts I write on this subject, you have some idea of my perception of time, how fast it is going, and how it means my children are growing up.
Tonight I had one of those shocking realizations of how fast time is passing. It all started very innocently. This morning, when getting the kids in the car to go to swimming lessons, I decided to forego the standard infant carrier carseat we have been using the past nine plus months and I strapped Whitaker into Willie's convertible carseat.
He LOVED it!
I took those photos with my iphone and sent my Mom a picture. She responded with an appropriate text response: "how cute. . . perfect timing 2 b a big boy . . . his last day as the baby of our family"
(I guess I should insert here that my sister is scheduled to have her labor induced tomorrow morning bright and early, so with luck, by lunchtime I will have a brand spanking new niece or nephew!)
As I read those words, a sudden panic came over me. Whit no longer a baby?
I have been avoiding the fact that he is indeed growing up. I avoid thinking about his age and the milestones he is achieving. Seriously, I've become that mom that has to actually count out his age (picture me with that squinty, looking up to the sky face as I look at my fingers and count, "May, June, July . . ." to the current month) on my fingers in order to tell people how old he is. This isn't because I am not able to count, it is because I do not want to acknowledge how old he is. I also have found it unconcerning at all that he refuses to crawl forward or pull himself up from a sitting position at the couch or coffee table. Never mind that Walker was walking at 11 months - the other kids too - I have no comparisons. As far as I'm concerned, the last major milestone I am allowing him to have is sitting up on his own. Oh, and eating on his own. There is a refreshing freedom to be found now at suppertime because I can just cut up tiny pieces of whatever we are eating and feed it to him. I can actually try to sit and eat a few bites before one of the kids needs a refill of their drink or forgot they wanted ketchup.
But all other developmental milestones are off limits!
I know this weekend, when we go to visit my sister and her beautiful new baby, Whit is going to seem like a MONSTER and my heart is going to be a little crushed with the physical evidence that Whit is no longer a baby.
This all begs the question, "How do all of you moms out there do it? How do you deal with your kids growing up?" Because it KILLS me.
I'm sure my emotions are acerbated by the fact that I have been in planning mode for Maggie's 5th birthday next week.
FIVE
That is a big number. Big things happen at 5. Five is a long way from this:
Walker has agreed to stop growing at age eight. He chose eight because at eight he will be old enough to enter 4H shows. But he doesn't understand that just minutes ago, he looked like this:
And tomorrow we're headed to the orthodontist to have his expander adjusted.
Tonight I had one of those shocking realizations of how fast time is passing. It all started very innocently. This morning, when getting the kids in the car to go to swimming lessons, I decided to forego the standard infant carrier carseat we have been using the past nine plus months and I strapped Whitaker into Willie's convertible carseat.
He LOVED it!
I took those photos with my iphone and sent my Mom a picture. She responded with an appropriate text response: "how cute. . . perfect timing 2 b a big boy . . . his last day as the baby of our family"
(I guess I should insert here that my sister is scheduled to have her labor induced tomorrow morning bright and early, so with luck, by lunchtime I will have a brand spanking new niece or nephew!)
As I read those words, a sudden panic came over me. Whit no longer a baby?
I have been avoiding the fact that he is indeed growing up. I avoid thinking about his age and the milestones he is achieving. Seriously, I've become that mom that has to actually count out his age (picture me with that squinty, looking up to the sky face as I look at my fingers and count, "May, June, July . . ." to the current month) on my fingers in order to tell people how old he is. This isn't because I am not able to count, it is because I do not want to acknowledge how old he is. I also have found it unconcerning at all that he refuses to crawl forward or pull himself up from a sitting position at the couch or coffee table. Never mind that Walker was walking at 11 months - the other kids too - I have no comparisons. As far as I'm concerned, the last major milestone I am allowing him to have is sitting up on his own. Oh, and eating on his own. There is a refreshing freedom to be found now at suppertime because I can just cut up tiny pieces of whatever we are eating and feed it to him. I can actually try to sit and eat a few bites before one of the kids needs a refill of their drink or forgot they wanted ketchup.
But all other developmental milestones are off limits!
I know this weekend, when we go to visit my sister and her beautiful new baby, Whit is going to seem like a MONSTER and my heart is going to be a little crushed with the physical evidence that Whit is no longer a baby.
This all begs the question, "How do all of you moms out there do it? How do you deal with your kids growing up?" Because it KILLS me.
I'm sure my emotions are acerbated by the fact that I have been in planning mode for Maggie's 5th birthday next week.
FIVE
That is a big number. Big things happen at 5. Five is a long way from this:
Walker has agreed to stop growing at age eight. He chose eight because at eight he will be old enough to enter 4H shows. But he doesn't understand that just minutes ago, he looked like this:
And tomorrow we're headed to the orthodontist to have his expander adjusted.
And Willie - well, I will be honest in saying that I am looking forward to outgrowing this three year old stage. As loveable as he is, I did not expect this guy:
To turn into this guy:
And I completely forgot that nine months of growing a baby inside your belly is nothing compared to nine months watching him grow outside.
One year ago, I had this:
Nine months ago, I had this:
And every day, I wake up to this beautiful boy who is TRULY the happiest baby in the world:
I am so very blessed, and so very grateful for the privilege of getting to raise these four creatures. They have taught me so much about God's love. What an honor it is to be their mother. My fervent prayer is that I will cherish every moment and hold it fast to my heart. I try not to take for granted that every moment I have is precious. And there is not one thing about it I would want to miss!
Time in Perspective
When this guy got on the school bus for the very first time to go to Kindergarten:
This guy was just a figment of our imaginations:
Whitaker
It's amazing how fast life can change. It still feels like yesterday that this guy was born:
Walker
And now six and a half years later, he's having his last day of Kindergarten!
First day: Almost last day:
I can't even believe this outfit still fits him. I'm glad to see at least that the shorts are a little shorter on him 10 months later. If only his hair was a little longer!
Hope you all are having a wonderful summer and the rest of summer brings you great joy and countless memories!
Where did those days go?
I didn't sleep well last night, so I am up early - well, early for me. I'm not really a morning person - not a good trait for a farmers wife. Anyway, I visited all my usual morning websites and blogs and nothing had changed since yesterday so I decided to look through my iphoto library and realized I took a bunch of pictures I hadn't realized I had! Since this blog is aimed mostly at keeping family and friends updated on what is going on here at Goodness Grows Farm, I thought I'd just post pictures and some little stories inspired by them.
This boy just melts my heart. He works harder than most grown men. Everything he does, he does with all of his heart. He's kind, responsible, caring, and sensitive. In fact, there are times I fear he is too sensitive. I worry about his heart and am afraid it will be broken many times in his life. He is innocent and everything a little boy should be!
Did I mention how much I love his freckles? These photos were taken back in March, right after a hair cut - his hair has grown out a lot since then and on humid days, it gets really curly. He hates it and wants to get a buzz cut for the summer, but I keep putting him off. I fear he won't stand for it much longer.
This little princess is something else! She's smart and sassy and quite the tattle tale. She doesn't restrict her tattles to things the boys are doing wrong - she gives me updates on everything that is going on. She tells her stories with such passion and animation that even when she is being a tattle tale, it is quite funny to listen to her story.
She and Will are my big sweets eaters. They would eat sweets 24/7 so I have to be very careful on what they are allowed access to.
Maggie & Walker have their very own cowgirl/boy hats. On this day they were playing cowboys/cowgirls and were wearing their hats and boots.
Will is obsessed with goggles.
Will falls asleep in our bed. Typical male.
Maggie exerts her sisterly dominance and applies lipstick to her little brother!
Walker holds Tubby - now named Levi as we say good bye!
I can't express with words how much joy these creatures bring to my life. We wait with great anticipation for the arrival of this little guy. We're at two weeks! But we wouldn't be too disappointed if he came sooner!
This boy just melts my heart. He works harder than most grown men. Everything he does, he does with all of his heart. He's kind, responsible, caring, and sensitive. In fact, there are times I fear he is too sensitive. I worry about his heart and am afraid it will be broken many times in his life. He is innocent and everything a little boy should be!
Did I mention how much I love his freckles? These photos were taken back in March, right after a hair cut - his hair has grown out a lot since then and on humid days, it gets really curly. He hates it and wants to get a buzz cut for the summer, but I keep putting him off. I fear he won't stand for it much longer.
This little boy also melts my heart, but he challenges me in ways I never would have imagined.
He is stubborn and strong willed and at times quite a bully. He is independent, yet is fearful of doing things without his siblings. He, like his older siblings, has been blessed with impossibly long eyelashes. We recently had a bit of a melt down because he was having a problem with the new sunglasses he got. He was telling me they were broken and I couldn't figure out what he meant by "broken, Momma!" Finally, I had him put them on and I looked all around his face to see where they were broken. When I looked down on them from above, I could see his eyelashes were smashed against the lenses. Poor guy's eyelashes were too long for him to wear the glasses so far up on the bridge of his nose! Who complains about that?
We're also working on potty training this little guy. He went through a phase for a while where he always had to be wearing this blue skirt from Maggie's dress up bin. On this particular day, he has on sweat pants, pull ups, the blue skirt and his muck boots. I told him if he was going to wear the pull ups he wasn't allowed to pee in them. Well, that worked, but he decided to pee outside, far away from me and then couldn't get all of his pants back up. He was pretty stuck. Of course, being the good mother that I am, I had to take pictures of it before I could go help him.
This little princess is something else! She's smart and sassy and quite the tattle tale. She doesn't restrict her tattles to things the boys are doing wrong - she gives me updates on everything that is going on. She tells her stories with such passion and animation that even when she is being a tattle tale, it is quite funny to listen to her story.
Maggie & Walker have their very own cowgirl/boy hats. On this day they were playing cowboys/cowgirls and were wearing their hats and boots.
Will was very disappointed to not have his own hat. All we had left was a costume type hat that I had to modify to fit him. He was pleased as punch, which is all that matters in the moment. However, I have a feeling that when this photo comes to surface sometime in the future, I'm going to get in trouble. Something along the lines of "sure, typical third child, always getting the left overs!" Willie J, my consolation to you is only this: Imagine the short end of the stick your new baby brother is going to get!" Poor guy - I had to find a super larger rubberband and wrap it around his hat and chin to keep the at on him!
Scenes from fishing camp at my dad's.
Enjoying the last days with the puppies.
Will is obsessed with goggles.
Will falls asleep in our bed. Typical male.
Maggie exerts her sisterly dominance and applies lipstick to her little brother!
Will isn't such a photogenic model demonstrating his recent lipstick application!
Walker holds Tubby - now named Levi as we say good bye!
I can't express with words how much joy these creatures bring to my life. We wait with great anticipation for the arrival of this little guy. We're at two weeks! But we wouldn't be too disappointed if he came sooner!