A Refreshing Trip to the Vet

Yesterday I took Lucy, our boxer, to the vet. Dog people love Lucy; non-dog people, not so much. She is classic boxer... a fun-loving, exuberant clown who wiggles her whole body in greeting, and then jumps up to lick your face! She loves everyone - unless you upset her by knocking on our door or skateboarding outside our house, though she'll still likely lick you if given the chance. Anyway, we were off to the vet!

For some reason it occured to me to ask my mother-in-law to watch Anna, Will, and Evan during our vet visit. And an amazing thing happened. I had a delightful, relaxing, almost retreat-like time at the vet's office sans kids! I was able to give my attention to my big sweet dog, let my mind wander, and sit peacefully waiting. It was so easy!! No negotiating who gets to hold the leash, no settling of disputes about the seating arrangements, no wrestling with a squirmy learning-to-walk nine-month-old who wants to put everything in his mouth. Just me and my dog in harmony with the universe.

Obviously, I don't get out much by myself!

9 Months of Evan, and I Digress

Tomorrow Evan will be nine months old. I was sorting through his old baby clothes today, and realized that is a dangerous thing to do. Once the clothes are in the box, do not take them out again. They are so tiny. So cute. So sentimental - or is that just me? He was such a little baby just yesterday, it seems, so sleepy and helpless with those cute scrawny legs. Now Evan is crawling, following after Anna and Will, and pulling up on stuff, trying to walk. He puts everything in his mouth... except food, that is. Yes, my nine-month-old acts like I'm torturing him whenever I offer him solid food, which baffles me. (Anna and Will were eating all kinds of foods by this time in their development.) I guess my littlest guy has an issue with food transitions... taking three months to figure out breastfeeding, now three months of resisting solids. At this rate he won't be ready for his traditional Schumacher Happy First Birthday Cupcake.

Evan is still so cute - cuter now, and more fun than when he was a tiny baby. Perhaps what makes me so sentimental is the knowledge that this phase, too, is fleeting. I can almost sense an older me watching me here in this time, more acutely aware of what is slipping away than I can ever be now. And I am telling me to stop and cherish and store up these things in my heart and take the time, but it is so hard in the midst of going here and there and fixing the broken toy and the hurt feelings and the spill on the floor. But this is where we live, in the midst of the mess. And life is messy, so that's all we have and that's where we must do our treasuring and cherishing. So there it is. Weird. Happy 9 months, little Ev!

Anna and Will's Thoughts on Heaven

Driving in the car today, out of the blue, Will expressed that he didn't want to go to heaven because there won't be any tv's and nothing to watch. I said there would be a lot of great stuff to do there, to which Anna added, "Yeah, maybe we can make crafts with Jesus!" That seemed to convince Will that heaven would be alright after all. :)

Happy New Year thoughts

Happy New Year! Everyone says it, and probably means it, but it's a funny phrase to me. It carries with it great hopes and goodwill wishes, but lacks power. Perhaps it is too ambitious a phrase. Maybe it falls short because it's a wish for a whole year. Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, and the rest only aspire to a single day, which is much more manageable. But Happy New Year goes for the whole 365. May this year be the best yet, certainly way better than last year, which may have been pretty darn good depending on your particular situation. There's a hollow ring to me... so much can happen in a year. This past year our family had sickness and new life, laughter and tears, a new school and the same old same old all mixed together. And that's life. So happy New Year - really. But whether the whole year is happy or not, just try to remember to savor the living of it.