Did you keep a journal with all the cute and funny things your child did when he or she was small? I always planned to…first in a Moleskine notebook and then in a lovely journal with a fairy on the cover…and then I bought a spiral notepad from Walgreens and never wrote anything down past the first page. I’m sure if there had been an app for capturing those moments I would have bought it and filled it, but Cole was born before apps. They now have app called Posterity that lets you capture all the delightful things your kids say, but I have moved on to becoming a blogger with a new platform for sharing those precious conversations and moments.
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Cole’s alarm on his phone has gone off at 6:10 every morning this week. This is odd in of itself simply because the earliest he has needed to get up this week is 9:30. Even with my less-than-stellar hearing I can hear the alarm in another room with the doors shut, but Cole sleeps through the alarm. This morning—not unlike Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning—I went into his room to turn off the alarm. Cole woke up just as I returned the phone to his dresser.
Cole (with bleary-eyed suspicion): Why do you have my phone?
Kb: I am going to place an ad for a package deal on Craigslist that includes you and your phone, and I wanted to make a list of the apps.
Cole: Seriously, Mom.
Kb: YOUR ALARM, COLE. IT WENT OFF AGAIN.
Cole: Are you sure, Mom?
Kb: Absolutely sure. Why do you set your alarm for 6:10 a.m. when you have no intention of getting up?
Cole (rolling over): I’m not sure…Mom, I’m still really tired. It’s only 6:15. I’m going back to sleep.
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Phone rings. It’s Cole.
Cole: Mom, I just filled my car up and I can’t get the gas hose out. It’s stuck in my tank. What should I do?
I’ll admit it felt good to be needed and omniscient again, but I had no idea what he should do besides drive off really fast (and this was suggested by a Facebook friend). Eventually, with a little help from another guy filling up his car, they managed to remove the hose from the tank. THANK GOD.
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I walked into the kitchen and Cole is polishing his grandfather’s fireman hatchet with my silver cloth and expensive silver polish.
Kb: Cole, why are you polishing that axe in the kitchen? Is that my good silver cloth and polish?
Cole: It’s a hatchet, Mom.
Kb: Whatever. Why does it need to be polished?
Cole (looking at me like I have lost my mind): So it can be shiny, Mom. I’m going to keep it in my room.
Kb: That hatchet is not living in your bedroom!
Cole: MOM! WHY NOT.
Kb: Because hatchets live in garages.
Cole: It’s not dirty or anything.
At this point I fear I am losing my mind. No hatchets in the bedroom. You have to stand for something or you will fall for anything…don’t you agree?
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On the way home from the dentist I stopped and bought one of my favorite summer drinks, a raspberry lime ricky. I was sipping my drink when Cole wandered into the room and I offered to share half of what was left of the drink.
Now, when someone offers to split a drink one might imagine that the other person would take the drink into the kitchen and pour his half of the drink into another glass. Are you with me on this?
Cole took my drink but did not return with my half. I hunted him down fearing a discrepancy between what I said—“I will share”—and what he had possibly heard—“You can have the rest of my drink.” I was wrong. When I found him drinking my drink, he was not planning to drink the whole thing…he was simply drinking his half of the shared drink and then planning to return my half to me. Ok.
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These precious conversations happened today and I wanted to capture them quickly because the years fly by…and before you know it, they are GONE!
Feel free to share your precious conversations with your teen or your significant other.
Odd Loves Company!
These conversations make my hair hurt. If it is any consolation, and because misery loves company, these verbal exchanges are routine at our house as well. This too, shall pass, and I am sure that some day, maybe, I will miss them. No. Not really….
Well we will TRY to miss them anyway!
Sheesh the fact that I understood these conversations completely makes my head hurt! Do you ever walk away feeling like you are the crazy one…I mean could it be reasonable to take the only loaf of bread upstairs with you and leave it in the tv room? Am I crazy for suggesting the bread be kept in the kitchen? Yes, I will miss my daughter and right now there are days I’m looking forward to missing her!
Glad to know it isn’t just boys! :-D. Maybe a little crazy in ways I don’t know about…but not about the bread. Bread should be community property and live in the kitchen! With you 100 percent.
Katybeth “liked” my Facebook post from earlier today – “Today I understand why some animals eat their young.” I don’t ask for much, I truly don’t. Why is there an argument when I ask that the math be done at the table rather than in his room? He wants to know why it’s a big deal. My answer was if it’s not a big deal, do it at the table. Not the answer he wanted. Fast forward several hours, truth be known the math hadn’t been done, the answers hadn’t been checked, and once it was done, the previously reported (b.s.) 95 grade was actually a 50. Please know that I don’t need good grades in math. I can get a job besides at McDonalds. Do you think he’ll get an employee discount? They do have good coffee. 🙄
Or junk me…or do we call then recycling enthusiast? Anyway..I was never pleased when one of the teachers at Cole’s school would tell parents (paying thousands in tuition) it does not matter if they grow up work at MCDonalds or become junk men we want to send compassionate, independent young people into the world. I wanted to say–Sista it matters to ME. To heck with happy I want to be well cared for in my old age… Your investment is both money and TIME! I would insist on something more than coffee in your old age…just saying.
I, too, planned on journaling my son’s precocious growing-up years, and I, too, never got past buying the journals! At least I’ve got pictures, ha! But you’re so right, especially about the hatchet — no way does a kid need a weapon of any kind in his room! For the record, I never heard of a hose getting stuck in the gas thingy — that’s kinda scary!
As long as the hose is turned off it isn’t dangerous and more common than you might imagine. HOWEVER in all my years of driving I have never known anyone that it has happened to…
Ever since I impaled my ankle on the wooden sword in Cole’s room and Joe had to remove the sword tip from my ankle… I have been a little uneasy about bedroom weapons. Cole was crushed I broke his sword but was consoled when I let him take the bloody tip of the sword to school for show and tell. Big hit! We agreed the hatchet would be happiest polished with steel wool living in the garage.
Yes! Lots of pictures!
Girls, take it from a “wise” grandmother, you can write down all of these precious and not so precious sayings and goings on, but in time they will be remembered “without” taking time to record said goings on! Trust me!
I do trust you Carol, I do. Funny tho my Mom and I sometimes remember things very differently! :-D.
KB,
Thanks for sharing! Things I’ve found in my teens’ rooms…empty pudding cups, empty drink containers, my good crystal bowls( Momma was NOT happy about this, teen girl said, but It’s pretty…) my clothes( also girl’s room)…no hatchet yet.
there are no baby books in this house….I wouldn’t have any idea where to look if there was! There are a few preschool projects stored away in boxes…I have no doubt some things will surely be remembered. Hope they will be kind!