First sighting
You know spring is here when you see Minnesotan’s donning sandals, newly painted toes and shorts when walking around the lakes early in the spring morning…and it is only 45 degrees.
We are a hardy bunch or maybe just a bunch that is looking for a touch of Vitamin D from the sun to help stave off rickets from the long hard winter.
Filed under Random thoughts | Comment (0)4-4-00
Dear CT,
Happy 6th Birthday! You made it onto your second hand. That’s BIG stuff.
Every year you flip one year older, I sit and take pause and remember the night you came into this world…Dad speeding down bumpy back streets, Bad Bad Leroy Brown blaring through the car, me holding onto the dash board huffing and screeching through 2 minute apart contractions just wondering if you are going to be spit-out right there in the foot-well. It was great and exhilarating and oh so very scary.
And now…and now you are six.
At six, you are filled with so much energy it comes spilling out of every pour.
At six, you are a leader.
At six, you know compassion and caring for others.
At six, you are silly as the day is long.
At six, you crave knowledge.
At six, you love Star Wars and soccer and coloring monsters.
At six, if things get hard you many times would rather stop.
At six, you requested pasta with broccoli and goat cheese for your special birthday meal.
At six, you love to nit-pick your little sister and you can’t stop hugging your little brother.
At six, you are still figuring out just how far you can push us.
At six, you are as big as many eight year olds.
At six, you love it all and you are happy.
My dear amazing son, may your sixth year be filled with everything you dream of.
I love you, Happy Birthday.
Mom
Filed under CT | Comment (0)Last of the last
I love the end of things, just about as much as I love the beginning of new things. I love to eek out every single solitary thing I can, because you just know it won’t be the same tomorrow.
Today is the last day CT will be 5. Today is also the last day of the photo project I have been doing with him. I decided when he turned 5 that I would take a picture of him everyday during his 5th year of life, and today is it.
The project has been great. I wish I had it together enough to have it all downloaded onto flickr and uploaded to my site, so you all could see the amazing transformations that have taken place in just one year of life. He has changed so much.
The photos are of everything and nothing, of everyday tasks and big mile-stones, some are blurry and some are perfect. It is a pictorial year in the life.
My hope is that he can look back on it and remember it all.
Filed under CT | Comment (0)Purge
Do you have any of those things on your list that just never seem to get checked off? Mine is the organization of the toys. I love how it feels to have the toys organized, but after three kids in six years and too many holidays that added too many toys, it all of a sudden become an overwhelming task.
I have had several strategies for keeping our toys in check. Most were really just a shuffling game between shelves in order to keep the kids interested. Then we started putting things in the basement and rotating them up every so often. Then, when that became too much, I just bagged the ones that were not getting picked up when “clean-up” time ended and they went into a white trash bag and found a new home in the basement. Needless to say, none of these approaches really ever seemed to work in the long run.
And then last week, my friend Jen came over. My dear, sweet, anally retentive, very organized friend Jen came over and kicked some serious toy ass. She has a way about her that let’s her easily sift through the crap and end up with only the things your kids really need. Or should I say, only the things that can easily be put in a bin and categorized. If it didn’t have a category and if it couldn’t fit in a bin, it was GONE.
Three and a half hours, two 90 gallon garbage bins, and a car full of toys to donate later, it was done. Now EVERYTHING has a home and a bin with its own name on it. No, it doesn’t matter that the kids can’t read yet, they’ll get the idea soon enough.
Oh and by the way…if any of you people tell my kids I just threw out half their toys and then gave another quarter of them to my husband’s Administrative Assistant, I will hunt you down and KILL you.
You see, they think ALL their toys are still in the basement, somewhere.
Filed under House Hold Chores | Comment (0)