Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Frankly, My Dear (Episodes 0-6)

I can't believe this is happening to me. (Yes, to me. It's my blog so it's all about me. He can do his own thing on MySpace.) My older baby is turning 18 on Friday. Yes, my dearest Frank! And it's gone by in an instant, or like Bossy says, "blink." But I have so many memories that I'm going to break this up into installments. Please indulge me. I'll indulge you, too.

First of all, I need to get this off my chest. For many years, I swore I would never have children. I never babysat as a teenager. I never had any interest in cute little babies. Perhaps because I was surrounded by many older people who thought it was great fun when I pretended to be a "junior senior citizen?" My mother-in-law will attest to this: when her third grandchild was born, I said, "Great, I'm off the hook." But then my friends started having babies. And I realized it wasn't a bad thing. And then we sort of thought about maybe having a baby someday. And then I was almost thirty. And then it happened to me. And it was the greatest thing ever.

So here we go into the Way-Back machine. Far, far back...to 1990.

Babyhood: Yes, we took the classic nakey "Baby on the Bearskin Rug" photo. I run a clean blog here so I promise -- no more nudity today. BTW, that is my babyhood bearskin rug. (I don't think I had a nudie shot.) Is the rug a family heirloom now or do I need to wait for a grandbaby to pose on it? Age 1: He loved our new kitten Sox. She's still with us 17 years later, having survived many years of being carried around by small children. I just want to nom nom nom on Frank's baby legs. Age 1.5: ACTION SHOT! One time, his auntie wanted to take pictures of him on his slide. I think I told him to slide down so we could get an action shot. So, forever after that, every single time he got to the top of the slide, he would pose and announce "action shot!" in his gruff little voice.
Age 2-3: The BATMAN Shirt. Yes, he was obsessed. For over a year he only wore Batman shirts. And often added boots and a cape. The picture on the right was on my refrigerator for years. I think we were making the cake for his 3rd birthday.
Age 4: He had widened his sartorial horizions. I think that's Spiderman under the cowboy gear. I adore that sly smile.
Age 5: First day of kindergarten. Be still my heart, is that a polo shirt? But wait, there are Gargoyles on the lunch box. Phew, he was growing up too fast for a moment there.

Age 6: He loves his new baby brother. He held and carried Ernest so carefully.

Stay tuned for Episodes 7-12.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, dear d-i-l, you were sandbagged by your hormones. And you have done an awesome job of launching 2 marvelous males into life.

They got to be babies, toddlers, kids, even grubby on occasion. They got to read bedtime stories and see the world.

May I add that, along the way, you took pretty good care of the HH, my once-baby son.

To the first 18 with love; I'm proud of you.
m-i-l

Noodle said...

Sweet, sweet, sweet!!

Jen said...

Aww, this is so sweet, looking forward to episodes 7 and on.

Vanessa said...

This is too cute! You are a fantastic mom for chronicling these events.

Anonymous said...

Ahhhhh, so sweet! I especially love the photo of him when he was just a year and a half. A big happy birthday to your soon-to-be 18 year-old! Wooooo hooooo! That's quite an accomplishment. Thanks for sharing the photos with all of us. It made my day.

Gwennie
Santa Maria, CA

Anonymous said...

Awwwww....

Louise said...

Wow! I picked the wrong time to get way behind on all my reading!

This is a sweet post (as I'm sure all the subsequent ones are going to be when I leave here to read them. I never wanted kids, either. I wasn't terribly opposed to them as I grew older, but I would have been find if Prince Charming had wanted none. But they ARE the best!

I LOVE the 1-year-old and cat picture here!