We recently had to fill out a form for Natalie for school, and had to answer a ton of questions about her developmental milestones. When did she say her first word? When did she sit up by herself? What? I have no clue what time of the day my kids were born, how much they weighed… their length! Without the blog I wrote for Natalie’s first year of life, I would have no idea about these milestones. And Andy – poor baby. He was born, he was precious, he still is. The end. Pictures? Yes – I’ve got millions. Scrapbooks? So many that I don’t have a shelf to hold them. But an actual Baby Book or journal that tracks that type of thing? I’ve got one for each kid – and they’re mostly empty. And I completely suck.
Anywho – re-reading that blog made us both keenly aware of the amazing, special, momentous, fun, tragic, wonderful, sad, overwhelming things that have happened in our lives over the past 8 years that have gone basically unrecorded. There’s no blog, no book, no journal. Just memories – and if I can’t remember what is on our family calendar for next week or what our family did last week….we’re in trouble. So here we go. I’m going to be more disciplined about getting things down, in the here-and-now. So that our kids might read this later on and have some understanding of why we say or do the things we do. Like when we see trash on the side of the road and we say, “Somebody’s not wovin’ da earf!”, or why Andy has a strange understanding of how all the blood flows through our veins and arteries at age four… At minimum, their therapist might be able to piece together some clues and build an arsenal for why I should be certified as insane or an unfit mother. Whatever it takes.
So it’s September, 2015. Last weekend was Natalie’s 8th birthday. We went rock climbing. Which makes sense, since we have exhausted all other birthday options for a girl like ours: We’ve had a…
- Swimming party
- WinKids party
- Build-A-Bear party
- Dr. Seuss party at the park
- Dinosaur party at the museum
- Slumber party
- Pottery painting party
I cannot wait until the birthday where she wants to sky dive. She is fearless and full of adventure. It was a fun, family-and-friend-filled weekend. Nine of her friends joined her for rock climbing, then we headed out for a family dinner at Fireside Pies. And Sunday was spent cooking and eating and enjoying time with family and friends for Cowboys football. The Cowboys lost. And I, of course, do not care. But everyone else enjoyed the game for a while.
The temperatures do like they always do this time of year – tease us into thinking we might actually have a Fall. Every morning is cooler than the last one. The afternoons are still summer-ish. But our home is decorated for fall and we’re anxiously awaiting sweater weather.
Natalie is playing soccer on the Little Angels and Andy started baseball this year. His team is called the Rough Riders (not “Poop”, as he suggested in front of the whole team and parents…) Soccer is Natalie’s favorite sport these days – and she’s good at it. She cries when it rains and games are cancelled and she gets some serious attitude if she’s ever told to sit out a period on the bench to rest. As for Andy…it’s too early to tell how much he likes it. He just likes that he has his own water bottle and is able to see his friend Kole each week. It doesn’t take a genius to see that Natalie is a lot like her daddy and Andy is a lot like me. That’s a WHOLE blog post of its own. (Preview: Andy likes patterns and schedules. Shopping. New shoes. Natalie likes to compete at brushing teeth, showering and finishing dinner and doesn’t understand the need for any other shoes than her sneakers an maybe some flip flops.)
Well, here’s to going forward. If we think of any past stories that just must be documented, we’ll do it here. Maybe on a Flashback Friday. Or a Throwback Thursday. Or a We Won’t Forget This Time Wednesday.
Lauri
Lauri Luckey 