One year already?!?

Last week, we celebrated Truman's first birthday. It's amazing to me that it's been a whole year. We constantly marvel at how grown up he seems, though, for just a year. He walks like a pro (runs most of the time, in fact), says a handful of words...and most amazing of all to us, when he got his brand new ride-on firetruck toy from Papa, he knew just what to do. In fact, he tried to climb on while it was still in the box! I guess it does pay to be third in some ways--he's just desperate to be like his big sisters. I will try to keep reminding him of that when he complains about all of the pink hand-me-downs!

Kate has returned from her month of sleep-away camp, and she seems to have tried absolutely everything this year. I'm especially proud that she did so much sailing and ocean kayaking! I want to go along next year, but I don't think she'd let me.

A little perspective

Last Sunday, we all took a trip up to Echo Hill Camp to visit Kate, our ten year-old, who is gone for four solid weeks.

For anyone who doesn't know Kate, she is an amazing kid--bright, talented and insightful, but also (much like both of her parents--at least as kids) hardheaded, a little odd and maybe just a little socially awkward. When I arrived, I was struck once again (this does happen a lot) that the first thing out of the mouths of her counselors (literally within two minutes of meeting me) was to tell me what an amazing girl I have.

Now, it's not that I didn't know that Kate was great, but sometimes in the midst of all of the arguing about how much time is spent on Webkinz and whether hair and teeth have been brushed and whether homework has been done and whether candy is being hoarded somewhere in the vast wasteland of her room--not even mentioning the state of the space under her bed, it's easy to lose sight of that kind of thing. (I'm sure you can relate if you're a parent.) And sometimes, it just takes someone you've never met giving you that little inkling into who your kid really is to remind you that maybe you ought to step back and smell the roses, so to speak (though maybe not literally if one of the things you are arguing about is how often it is appropriate to shower).

A start...

So here it is...hopefully better attended to than all of those journals I have begun over the past 30+ years. Lots of books with a few filled-in pages and lots and lots of blank space.

In order to stick with it, I will try to remember that today I was inspired, even though a blog had not really been in my plans, by three women I admire greatly: two of my oldest friends and my mother. Yesterday, I talked with Cara and Merie, who both mentioned blogs--Cara as a goal she had set for herself and had yet to accomplish this summer and Merie as a prolific, organized and inspired blogger whose blog I had failed to pay attention to (shame on me!).

So today, I read Merie's blog a bit and saw what a wonderful gift she was giving to her daughter and to her family, and I also thought of my friend Emily and the gift of her blog that she gives to her children and her friends and I was especially touched by it, since today is the one-year anniversary of my mother's death--much, much too soon and in the midst of a full and happy life.

Since my mother's death, my wonderful stepdad has been carting over carload after carload of amazing things my mother left behind--photos, albums, baby books, a wedding album, her grandmother book that she left behind for my daughter. She could never have expected that she would not see 70, yet she documented everything in real time, letting us all in on who she was from her 20s until her 60s. When I showed my Aunt Mary Jane my mom's wedding album, she was struck by the attention my mother gave these milestones and commented in her quiet way that my mother was "quite the documentarian."

I am lucky for that and though I'm a more scattered and frenetic soul than my mother was, I want to do what I can to give that to my children--my two beautiful girls, Kate and Izi (who are 10 and 2.5), and my little boy, Truman, who is almost one.

So Mom, this one's for you. I'll do my best to make it worth reading.