We're very lucky.
Jack is the sort of child
we all assume we'll have
when we decide to have children,
and the sort of child
less experienced parents
congratulate themselves for.January and February 2004
March and April 2004
May and June 2004
July and August 2004
September and October 2004
November and December 2004
Blogs we read:
Tuesday, Oct. 05, 2004 - (Mamma)
Getting ready for Winter
The Next Big Thing!
This is the next gift I hope to get for Jack ... he loves music, and I'd like for him to be able to make his own!
Winter
The weather is finally turning cold! Hurrah! When we left for work today, it was 31dF (-1dC) and Jack had several new experiences!
He got to wear a jacket for the first time this autumn -- and probably the first time in his memory.
He also got to see breath condensation! At first he thought I was doing something very clever and he laughed -- and then he saw the steam from his own breath and was a bit disconcerted. Fortunately it was warm enough that once he was in the car, he couldn't see his breath anymore. That narrowly averted a crisis. I hope that tomorrow it will be "old news".
Of course, since he has learned to walk, and increasingly insists on walking on his own, winter coming means we need to consider whether to get some real snow boots for him. The sweet little leather pull-ons are great for keeping a boy in arms and wrapped up in blankets quite warm -- but they won't stand up to ice-cold sidewalks and snow.
I'm hesitant to get them, though, because I know that soft soles as he learns to walk well are beter for his foot health in the long run. Perhaps it will be a non-issue by the time snow actually falls, though. If we don't see snow until late December or early January, as often happens here in SE Michigan, Jack should be quite fleet of foot and ready for harder shoes.
So fast, so fast
I am making up a scrapbook for my grand daughter, and in the process, I have been going through a lot of old (and not so old) photos.
I look back at photos of TJ and realize that although he expecting his second child, those pictures of him at Jack's age still seem so current!
And yet, I look back at photos of Jack taken 30 days ago, and I see that he is much more a big boy than he was so vey recently.
Time passes so quickly. How can one pass along to young first time parents the understanding that as interminable as today's temper tantrum feels, you'll be looking back what feels a few days and wondering how your precious baby grew away so fast!
I guess one can't really. And it's so easy to get caught up in today's imperitives and lose track of all we'd like to do with and for our kids "some day".
Don't wait! The time goes so fast!
I look back at all I wanted to do for and with TJ and Corey and I realize that I missed my chance. Some of that is inevitable. I didn't have the resources when they were of the age to appreciate it, and now they're off building adult lives of their own. I think of it as "the rubber chicken syndrome".
When Corey was little, he had begged and begged for a rubber chicken. I didn't have the money to get him one, and so I put him off. Eventually money got freer, and I was out shopping and saw a rubber chicken -- I remembered how much he had wanted one, and I happily bought it and brought it home to him.
Corey looked at me like I was an alien.
What to me had seemed such a brief time passing had been a good chunk of his life! The toy he had coveted when he was seven or eight had no meaning at all to him at 12 or 13.
A rubber chicken doesn't matter very much--but it is emblematic of the missed opportuniies that abound in my life with my older kids. They begged to go to Disneyland. By the time I could afford it, they were more interested in having a beer with me at the Hard Rock cafe in Copenhagen.
I couldn't have taken them to Disneyland, but I do wish I had spent more time taking them to the park, and on picnics, and lsitenign harder to their stories and their hopes and fears. I always cared, but we all got so busy, and then they were gone.
I am trying very hard not to miss those moments with Jack. I can't go back and make it up to the older boys -- but maybe I can avoid a fresh set of regrets.
Balancing that against spoiling Jack is a whole 'nother problem, of course.
Life never gets less complicatedd, does it?
In the News
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Nature Outings Reduce ADHD Symptoms
Too Much Childhood TV Tied to Poor Adult Health
Poor Nutrition Leading Cause of Child Death
Piano, voice lessons may give 6-year-olds intellectual edge
