Month: September 2011

So I have a confession to make.  I haven’t done any scrapbooks for the past six years.  I feel a lot of mom-guilt about this because I used to give my own mother so much grief for completing my older sister’s baby book with captions and dates and details and two and a half years later when she had me, my baby book only had one week of my life documented -the rest you can find a jumbled mess in a drawer in her house.  I vowed to document the moments, take gobs of pictures and tuck them away neatly in annual scapbooks so my children could watch themselves evolve year to year.  I’ve failed miserably!  I put together a book of Carter’s first week of life.  That’s it!  I actually caught up on my scrapbooks while I was on bedrest for the 13 weeks leading up to his arrival.  But haven’t done a single scrapbook since then!!

This blog is serving as one tool to help document and capture the funny things that they do.  I like to think of it as the story behind the pictures.  The color commentary, if you will. I’ve also kept calendars for each child with significant growth milestones in it.  And I’ve kept all of their artwork to date (they each have their own binders with their artwork in slipcovers.  See ROYGBIV blog if you’re surprised at this!)

But the other day, I couldn’t help but realize that I actually carry around a scrapbook of sorts.  My purse!  I use this purse for ‘grown up occasions’ – date nights, dress up events, any time I’m going out and I won’t need a diaper bag with me, I carry this purse.  Last week, I went along with Jim to a business conference for an overnight get away and as I was shuffling through my purse looking for lipstick, I came across every ticket stub to shows I’ve seen in the past six years including IRT, Wicked, Mama Mia, Symphony concert as well as a few funeral programs and wedding programs, and my 20th high school reunion program from this summer!   There were a few matchbooks and a mint wrapper or two from restaurants where we’ve gone on dates.  Digging for lipstick is like an archeological dig through my social life!  I didn’t have the heart to clean it out.  I just look forward to continuing to add points of interest to what could seem to the untrained eye to appear like an ordinary black bag.

Back in my college days, my roommates used to know how to really “get” me.  You see, we would play practical jokes on each other and each of us would take the next gag to the next level.  Anyhow, back then, I was the picture of organization.  I had separate binders for each class, neatly organized on my custom made bookshelf that sat upon my desk.  I had a mug for pencils, a mug for pens, my calendar neatly held my life together and it was always color coded.  But the thing that they thought was hilarious was in my top drawer I kept my scented markers in rainbow order.  Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet – or ROYGIBIV.  Doesn’t everyone do this?  I guess not!  Anyhow, when they really wanted to mess with me, they would open up that top drawer and mix up a few colors.  I’d always notice, of course!  And that was the fun of it.

Fast forward nearly 20 years and I’ve lightened up a bit – but I’m still a closet perfectionist (and my closets are the only things I like to keep organized!)  I like to say I’m a laid back perfectionist  or a recovering perfectionist… but that same former roommate and I still get together and lately the boyz have been asking us to tell them stories about our college days.  Well, this one came up and they all got a kick out of it.  Funny the things we remember about people that stay the same over the years!

Well, then a few weeks later, Carter was doing his homework using his crayons in his 96 count crayon box – the one with the built in pencil sharpener in the back.  I bought this one for him because I always coveted this one as a kid.  We had one like this that we kept at my Grandmother’s house that we would use for coloring over there.  We always took really good care of it, but I don’t really recall having my own large box at home.  So it’s just a small way I indulge him (and me!)  So as he’s in the middle of coloring his homework, somehow the box tips over and all 96 crayons spill out everywhere!  On the countertop, all over the floor… it was 96 crayon pick up! Except it wasn’t really greeted as a game but instead met with a few tears.

So in a moment of motherhood wisdom I turned lemons into lemonade by explaining that this was an opportunity to RE-ORGANIZE his crayon box!  Wouldn’t it be nicer to have all the colors together in varying shades of rainbow order?? He saw the light and wiped his tears and was soon shuffling the reds from the pinks from the greens.  Once finished, it was a masterpiece of organization. And I know I was finally able to take a deep breath that the crayons were at last finally in the right place.

A few days later, Carter said to me, “Mom, I really like having my crayons this way! It’s so much easier to find the colors instead of looking all around for them!”  Ah-ha!  A ROYGIBIV convert in the making!

The other morning, I grabbed my camera to try to capture a glimpse of the carnage that Fletcher leaves in his path of destruction. He’s on the move and is into everything.  I keep trying to remind myself, as I clean up the wreckage, that this is how they learn but it might also be the reason I can’t get anything done or why I’m never on time.  But in the end, it’s all about discovery. He’s discovering how to open doors, and I’m discovering how to latch them.

He opened the fridge, was playing with the condiments

Unrolled the paper towels – maybe he was trying to clean up?

Loves the dishwasher soap door note the bottle of BBQ sauce at his feet

Helped himself to some carrots while in the fridge

Likes the lazy susan and was getting into the ziplock bags. I didn’t take a picture of the 100’s of bags that were everywhere!

Into the pantry… yes, that’s my printer router he knocked over with the broom

Then he moved onto my desk drawers