Love (My Job) Thursday
Please pardon the radio silence from this end. It's been a busy couple of weeks with our new puppy and all the poop and all, and now my mother-in-law is here for a visit so I'm busy with all that's involved with having a house guest. Plus, drinking.
It's funny because I had one of those "Man, where did the last decade go?" moments yesterday and then when my mother-in-law got here, it was reinforced even that much more. Yesterday, I was in the grocery store parking lot and something in the car next to me caught my eye. It was the exact same car seat that I used for both of my kids as toddlers --same blue plaid cover on it, even. (I would link to it but the fabric has apparently been discontinued. I bet half of y'all had the same seat--the Britax Roundabout?)
It was amazing to think of how many times I buckled and unbuckled that car seat and how different it is now that my kids are out of car seats altogether. I wonder sometimes if there is any other experience like parenting small children--so incredibly hard and so relentless and yet we just wouldn't trade a single moment of it away. Even with the puppy, I would very gladly skip over a few of his phases. (For example, I'd gladly jump right past the phase we're in now where he puts both feet in his water dish and tries to dig up the cooler water from underneath. Hardwood floors, you know.) (Also, the digging of small holes all over my yard, I could pretty much do without that one and not ever miss it.) But with my children, I would do every minute of it again --the potty training and the tantrums and the ear infections...
So, then my mother-in-law arrived and it turns out that my older daughter Ana is now taller than her grandmother.
Whoosh, there it went --eleven years of my life. The BEST eleven so far.
It's funny because I had one of those "Man, where did the last decade go?" moments yesterday and then when my mother-in-law got here, it was reinforced even that much more. Yesterday, I was in the grocery store parking lot and something in the car next to me caught my eye. It was the exact same car seat that I used for both of my kids as toddlers --same blue plaid cover on it, even. (I would link to it but the fabric has apparently been discontinued. I bet half of y'all had the same seat--the Britax Roundabout?)
It was amazing to think of how many times I buckled and unbuckled that car seat and how different it is now that my kids are out of car seats altogether. I wonder sometimes if there is any other experience like parenting small children--so incredibly hard and so relentless and yet we just wouldn't trade a single moment of it away. Even with the puppy, I would very gladly skip over a few of his phases. (For example, I'd gladly jump right past the phase we're in now where he puts both feet in his water dish and tries to dig up the cooler water from underneath. Hardwood floors, you know.) (Also, the digging of small holes all over my yard, I could pretty much do without that one and not ever miss it.) But with my children, I would do every minute of it again --the potty training and the tantrums and the ear infections...
So, then my mother-in-law arrived and it turns out that my older daughter Ana is now taller than her grandmother.
Whoosh, there it went --eleven years of my life. The BEST eleven so far.
Comments
plus, my very first puppy ever is about to turn 9 and is all white around the eyes.
At least they're not digging holes in the backyard, too. I used to do that when I was a puppy. I think I was somewhere between four or six or something and decided I should look for dinosaur bones in the back yard. But four or six year olds can't dig very deep holes, and of course I'd get all distracted and go dig another one...my father was always sort of like, what?? You were doing what???