Flashback

One of the best things about blogging for a long time is that, well, I have been blogging for a long time. And I have a record. A record of our story, of our day to day life. Sometimes interesting, sometimes not. Lately I feel like my blog has lost all of the personal stories. Our stories. And that makes me sad. Because I won’t remember them, unless I write them down. It used to be in scrapbooking, but now it’s blogging, and lately it hasn’t even been that.

Just because my kids are growing up, doesn’t mean I don’t need to get their stories down, in fact it probably means that I should even more.

Like how Blake told me a couple days ago that he never wanted to tell Eva she was adopted because he didn’t want her to be sad. I said, “maybe she won’t be sad. Maybe she will feel special, because we wanted her soooo much.” He didn’t seem convinced. So I told him something that Cole said to me recently, “mom was I adopted?” I said no honey you weren’t. “DARN!!!” I asked him why that upset him and he said, “well I was really hoping that I had twin brother out there somewhere that I could hang out with. You know, someone just like me. It would be soooo fun.” All I could think of was how I probably would have been admitted to the looney bin if there had been two of him but later when I thought about it, I thought of how cool he was with accepting the whole thing. He didn’t care. He knew I loved him. No matter what. Twin brother or not. Blake just looked at me in shock, he too trying to imagine life with two Cole’s. It could be worse.

After spending the day at Zoombezi Bay we came home and Cole climbed on my lap and gave me a big hug. Eva (who skipped her nap) FREAKED. “I”m the baby!!!!!” she said and climbed in my lap and smacked Cole. I told her that she was my baby but so was Cole, and so was Blake. She thought that was crazy. “I’m the baby!!” she said again. Yes, honey, yes you are. Love her.

Blake came down with strep throat again yesterday and I think it is time to think about getting his tonsils out. I don’t want too, but he gets it wayyyyyy too much. 🙁

One of the things that is kinda cool about flickr is that when someone faves one of your pics it pops up on your homepage, and that always sends me down “memory lane”

Today it was pics from a few years ago at a Crew workshop for the boys soccer teams. Andy was out of town, I was freaking out because Cole kept getting bloody noses. Then he had weird bruises. I was convinced he had cancer. I sent myself into a frenzy- a bad bad place. I called a friend that was a ped. and asked him, he said Cole wouldn’t have been able to run around at soccer like he saw him doing if he had cancer. He would be tired, not full of energy. I called my friend that is a family doc and she said the same thing. I called his regular ped. and took him in for an appointment. He said he was fine. The bloody noses were from his nose being too dry, and to try vaseline. His weird small dot bruises were from him coughing. My friend called me later and said, “do you need a 4th doctors opinion?”

It still makes me cry to think about. I love them so, these kids of mine. And I worry. I worry like there is no tomorrow. Because I want them to have lots of tomorrows. Lots and lots. And I want to have those tomorrows with them. Oh I love them so. Having kids is like having my heart walking around on 4 little (and big) people, it’s just out there, for all sorts of heartbreak. But also for soooooo much good.

And so I thought I would repost the pics from that day, and then I thought it would be easier to just repost the whole post. The trip to Crew stadium, the Crew player that took Cole under his wing when he got another bloody nose on the field. The terror I felt when Cole wandered off and I couldn’t find him… it’s all there- in these shots that I glossed over and made sound so happy.

Parenting is a crazy roller-coaster, and there is not a day that goes by that I am not thankful that I am on the ride. I try to not take one minute for granted. And this has been a nice reminder to look back, to see where we were, where we have been, and where we are going. And enjoy the ride 🙂

originally posted on May 14, 2008

Every Spring the Columbus Crew does this really cool thing with our soccer program. I’m not sure when it started but I know my boys have been going for the last 4 or 5 years.

Apparently Worthington has the largest soccer program of all the Columbus area school so we are the only school system (that I know of) that gets to do this.

Anyway they invite all the players (even the Soccer Tots- Cole’s group) down to have a “clinic” at the stadium. They break into groups (by age) and each group gets two Crew players to run drills with them out on the field. After each drill they rotate to 2 more players until they go through all of them (I think there were 6 different stations).

Blake with his group, listening to these guys

They said their station was the best- Sharks and Minnows

Funny how even pro players still love Sharks and Minnows.

Cole with his group. Andrew Peterson was one of the Crew players for his group. He was very nice to Cole, who wasn’t feeling 100%

Frankie is the captain of the Crew, all the young girls love him because of his hair.

After the drills, they get t-shirts and autographs of the players

Will Hesmer the Goalie

Frankie

Alejandro Moreno signing Blake’s jersey

Brian Carroll

Blake, Ted, Austin, Cole (wearing my shirt!), Nate, MaryBeth, and Megan

Can’t forget the CrewCat

And then my favorite shot of the night, after he got his jersey signed by the players Blake went out on the field to kick the ball and no doubt pretend he was a Crew player

Cole passed out in a chair the moment we got home, when I went to pick him up he was burning up. Always picks when Andy is out of town to get sick on me!

The following picture was taken the same night but not part of the blog post- I uploaded it to flickr with the caption

Poor little 4 year old in hand-me-down shoes and sock and shin-guards.

Everything 2 sizes too big.

Hard to be the 3rd boy.

Have a great weekend, and take time to really enjoy your family moments.