Saturday, March 31, 2007

She Fell In Love With The Drummer (s)




Yes, these are pictures of both boys playing the bongos at a young age. Ben is at the top at 7 months old and Nate is on the bottom at 6 months. Different set of drums, but the expression on each face is the same.
This past week Nate started sitting up on his own. We still put a few pillows behind him so if he does fall backwards it's a soft landing, but he's doing pretty well. I put him on Ben's bed with the drums the other day and right after I did it, I went looking for the camera, which happens a lot these days. After I took the shot I remembered having a similar photo of Ben and had to look it up. It's so amazing, four years later to have a these glimpses back into Ben's babyhood thanks to Nate's experiences. So often it seems that Nate does something, makes a noise, a laugh, a face, and it is eerily reminiscent of what his brother did at this age. It makes it twice as fun to watch Nate explore the world as we get to remember Ben's first explorations as well.
In honor of the theme here (Drums) I named this entry from the lyrics to a Wilco song that popped into my head when I started writing this. It always makes me think of Tim, as he was a drummer when we met (and I still consider him one even though he hasn't played in a while) and now we have two little drummers on our hands.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

You've come a long way Benny!

Ben is now 4 years old! It's early on March 11th, he's still sleeping as I wrtie this which is keeping my brain from believing it's true. As of 9:34 this morning Ben will be 4 years old.

It's very strange and wonderful to look back and think 4 years ago at this time we were in the hospital, in labor and so close to meeting him! A lot has happened in that time of course, he's grown and changed so much, as has our family. I know it's a cliche but you can't imagine the way that children will shape your life until you have them. It's such an individual experience to have your own kids, to raise them, learn from them, watch them grow and at the same time as unique and personal as it is, it's also the most common unifying thing about us. We all know someone with kids, we all were kids, and most of us who don't have kids and are in a relationship are asked when we'll have them and those of us who do have kids get asked when we're having more. (we're good with our two by the way, just to answer that for family/friends who've been asking)

Shortly after Ben was born we received a present from one of my co-workers at PlusTime. The gift was an adorable blue, fleece outfit but to me, the words on the card she gave were the real treassure. It's stuck with me these four years and it's the most truthful thing about being a parent that I have ever heard. Well, that and "you'll never sleep again".

"Having a child is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."
- Elizabeth Stone