Why Wait?

My kindergartener is a kindergartener no more. His last day of school was this past Thursday. We celebrated with a birthday party for his dad. What can I say? We’re efficient like that.

The thing that really gets me is that it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that Lij started kindergarten! For that matter, his baby days seem like only yesterday sometimes. But now (actually ever since January), he’s been going around telling everyone he’s going to be in first grade. I love his enthusiasm for learning. I just wish he weren’t in such a hurry to grow older.

Since the school year was rapidly coming to a close, the younger kiddos and I took the opportunity a week ago Friday to head up to the school and eat lunch with our favorite soon-to-be-1^st-grader. I found myself spending a lot of time watching during our visit. As we entered the cafeteria, I watched as Lij, the lone brown-bagger that day, sat at his classes’ table all alone, eating his pb&j. After giving the boys ice cream money, I watched as Dyl and Nicholas followed their older brother into the line to buy their treats. Like little ducks, they waddled in line behind Lij, all of them waiting patiently in line to first select an ice cream and then to pay for it. I watched each child’s personality manifest itself through the order in which they chose to consume the food comprising their lunches. I watched Maddy alternate between taking in her surroundings and demanding licks of her brothers’ ice creams. I felt like I was watching from a distance, drinking it all in like a camel on the edge of an oasis. These moments are passing too quickly!

And then I remembered what a man in the store had said to us just a few days before. He looked at our cartful of children and smiling, told us how beautiful they all were. Then he paused a moment and, with what looked like regret in his eyes, told us that when we got to be his age, we would look back on these moments as the best of our lives. At the time, I thought it was sweet. But since then, when ever this old man comes to mind, these words pop into my head: “Why wait?”

Why wait till my twilight years to enjoy the moments that surround me now? Why wait to appreciate these precious and precocious little people who surround me? Why wait to embrace the dirt and scrapes and messes and tantrums that fill my days as wonderful and necessary threads in the fabric of my life?

I’m prone to spending valuable energy watching for the next big thing. Just wait until I’m married. Just wait until I have kids. Just wait until we’re done with school. Just wait until we own a house. Just wait… And while I’m waiting, watching the horizon for whatever’s next, this day – full of joys and struggles – is passing by unnoticed.

And so my old man question remains, both a question and a challenge to myself and anyone else who feels prompted to take it: Why wait?

After all, my soon-to-be-1^st-grader certainly isn’t going to!

She Has Arrived!

Now, this might seem like a more appropriate title for a certain post about a year ago, but bear with me. It seems pretty applicable today too.

Because today Maddy pulled herself up to standing using the kitchen table. Today Maddy grabbed something off said table. Today Maddy upended said something: a half-eaten bowl of milk-soaked cereal (Nicholas was a bit upset when he came back to the table in search of his remaining breakfast). Upended it all over herself. All over me. All over the floor. Today Maddy officially joined the ranks of her havoc-wreaking brothers. And so…

…she has arrived!

It’s About That Time

Well, it’s been about three years. And in our world, that’s approximately two and a half years overdue. So we shouldn’t have been too surprised. But we were. Surprised. When we all piled into the car at six-thirty for our morning commute and said car didn’t start. At all. We were pretty surprised. To put it mildly.

Wait, wasn’t your car brand new when you bought it? Yep.

That means it’s only three years old. Yep.

Wow. Yep.

Hang on… isn’t it your only car? Hey, good for you! You’ve really been reading this blog. Yes. It is in fact our one and only car.

But, then how… ? How indeed!

Our neighbors down the street were kind enough to try to jumpstart us. Twice. With both their cars, in case that made a difference. It didn’t.

So they were then nice enough to give Lij a lift to school along with their two kiddos and will pick him up this afternoon should our car prove too complicated for modern mechanics.

Our middle two boys got the thrill of their week watching our van get loaded onto the back of a tow truck.

And Alexander is currently at the repair shop. With our car. Getting to use yet another day off for yada yada yada as opposed to an actual vacation. It’s been about three years since he used time off for an actual vacation. And if ever a guy needed a vacation…

I’m still hoping it’s just the battery and the worst that happens is us feeling dumb for calling a tow truck for nothing more than a dead battery. I’m hoping.

I’ll keep ya posted…

Update: It was, in fact, the battery. Expensive tow. Expensive electrical check test. Half a day of work lost. But just the battery. And cheap labor too. In short, we’ve seen worse. Much worse.

A Little Weaning Whining

OW!

That is all.

Oh, What Fun…

…Madelyn’s one.

It’s hard to believe that my baby’s a year old already! Here are some things she’s up to lately (with a few pictures from her birthday celebration, including the daintily-feminine cupcakes I got to make for her, complete with lavender-colored crème filling for the love of adorable – it’s feels so good to give free reign to my inner girly girl ever once in awhile):

Maddy seems to have a constant smile on her face and we love her for it.

She is feisty and determined and knows what she wants.

She blows good-bye kisses to Daddy each morning and smothers me with real ones all day.

Her laughter is contagious. She likes to tell me “all about it.”

She has the ability to turn her three rough and rowdy, holligan-type brothers into chivalrous gentle-almost-men.

She sleeps well and eats well and plays well.

She likes to pick out her clothes and her current favorite food is whole green peas which she bites into with a satisfyingly squishy “pop.”

She is trying out her land legs, standing unassisted for long periods of time and pushing chairs all over our house.

She is the perfect addition to our family and we’re so glad she decided to come barging into our lives a year ago. Her birth empowered me. Her life uplifts me.

I'm so glad you’re ours, little sweet pea!