Stop and Observe "the Inch"



A few months ago, my five year old begged me to start tracking her height on a wall in the basement.  I wasn't opposed to the idea.  In fact, I liked the idea of a designated space in our house that could record the stages of the kids' development.    But the request came on a busy morning as we were getting ready for school.  Things were chaotic and crazed and I remember literally running downstairs to make a chicken scratch mark on the wall to satisfy "her." 

 

Then we went on about our daily lives.  School, homework, appointments, ballet, hockey, holidays, bedtime tuck-ins.  The days seemed to blur from one to the next, filled with excitement and lots of hard work.  And recently, it was a random day after the bustle of the holidays, she asked to mark her height on the wall downstairs again.  I thought to myself, "oh silly girl, we just did this a few months ago; there won't be a drastic change yet.  But wanting to  avoid a tantrum of sorts, I obliged and followed her hastily to the basement wall. 



When I got downstairs, I was astonished...The mark on the wall was at least an inch higher than what it had been in November.  I double checked to make sure she wasn't standing on tippy toes.  I smushed her little mop of hair down to her scalp.  Nope.  It was legit.  This little being of a person had really grown an inch on me.  Seemingly, literally, over night. 

That's when it hit me.  My little ones are busy growing.  Not only physically, but emotionally and mentally.  And it is quite literally happening over night. 
 

 

 On days when life's schedule of events seem to be dictating each waking hour, it's difficult to stop and really observe what's going on around me.  But that "inch" on the basement wall really hit home. 

 

I need to stop.  Take a moment.  Observe.  Take it all in.  Enjoy.  And Participate. 

Because it's true what parents for generations before us have been saying:

"They grow up in the blink of an eye."   
"Enjoy this age, they will be grown before you know it."

Most times, I just smile and nod and dismiss this advice. 

But the "inch sitch" reminded me to be more in tune.  To try to actively cherish these moments.   Sure, there may be missteps and days when I can't wait for these little guys to crawl into bed so that I can enjoy some peace and quiet of my own (and some days those seem more frequent than not).  But mostly, I find by morning's next sun, I am eager to start a fresh day again with these little guys.  I try to remind myself about that "inch."  I wish I could freeze this moment in time. 

 

And so I take as many mental notes and build as many happy times as I can collect. 

For soon, that "inch" will become two.  And two will become four.  And my little ones will be out the door and off on their own. 

 

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Arek cherish life, family life, growing, hockey, ice skating, kids

Peeps in Jeeps

 

Thank you to Kandrac & Kole Interior Designs for sharing this image on their Happy Image of the Day today on their facebook page (see here).  I thought this was super humorous (and a great way to celebrate those nostalgic Twinkies). 

Happy *almost* Easter!  Do you have anything in store this weekend?

The kids and I decorated Easter eggs last weekend.  Here are the fruits of our labor. 

 

I have a few posts that I'm working on but haven't published yet so look for some new content soon...if only life would quit being so BUSY! 

Cheers,

Heather | Vivid Hue Home

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Arek family life, Happy Easter, Kandrac and Kole

Pink Cowboy Boots and Pond Scum

Ever have those series of days or weeks where you feel like life is making you play catch up? 
Catch up may not be the word.  Maybe I mean it's making you work extra hard at 'stuff?'

It can be catch up in a good and hectic way;   Like on a professional level, at my day job, we are expanding the medical practice that I help run with my husband EG and so we've been meeting with architects to figure out how the space will look and what we'll need to accommodate our growth.  

Or it can sometimes feel like a desperate sort of trudge through molasses to make positive changes; Like on a personal level, I am feeling like my family is needing some extra love and attention.  My little peanuts are precious and at such a wonderful and cute age and they are like little sponges in what they learn and absorb.    My littlest peanut is very feisty and has been expressing herself in "nice colorful ways" and so we're giving her some extra hugs and focus and trying to figure out the challenging mind of a four year old little being.  So for now, I wanted to share a fun memory I have of a family photo shoot we had in NYC last fall. 

So, here we are in all of our disheveled loveliness.  I so desperately wanted this family photo shoot because we never have the four of us together.  I also wanted Wendy and Tyler from Blue Lily Photography for the shoot because they have always produced such wonderful photos of NieNie and her family (see here).  We high tailed it down to NYC from Connecticut to meet Wendy and Tyler in Central Park for the shoot.   A perfect location...this is where EG and I got engaged so no better place to film our whole family years later!  (ha...Luckily photos can hide the behind the scenes)

Before Wendy and Tyler even arrived, the kids were squirrely.  They were running around the perimeter of the pond and sometimes getting daringly close to the edge.  But the edge consists of "stairs" that actually step down into the water so I rationalized it's not like they would actually fall off the ledge into the water because there was no ledge!  I stepped away to message Wendy and provide some identifying elements so she could spot our family when she arrived.  EG was on kid patrol (Hey, no blame here).  In the midst of my texting, I noticed a commotion at the base of the pond.  Non-English speaking tourists were flailing their arms around in a frantic flight.  Well shit...I'd better get over there.  There's got to be some celebrity at the scene to cause such a stir.  As I got closer, I noticed.  No celebrity.  Ah...my family.  My husband.  My son.  At the base of the pond.  But my daughter was no where to be found.  Until I inched closer and realized that the "fish" the tourist was fetching out from the water was in fact my daughter.  Yep, submerged from the neck down in the smelly wretched cold pond water of NYC.  That's my girl.  (Fine by the way, just soaking wet!)

 

All this went down BEFORE the photo shoot.  Now most sane families might have called the shoot off.  Actually, that's what my husband wanted to do.  But no.  I'm no 'Toddlers and Tiara' stage mom, but you forget, this was our once in a lifetime family photo session and the show must go on!  So I sent EG to the car for a back up outfit for our daughter and Wendy started to shoot away!  You'd never even guess that Vivi is soaking wet from the head to her toes in the above photo, would you?  (The gray coat was dry).   We had a one hour photo shoot and the first 40 minutes were of the kids only while EG trekked to the car for new clothes!  We did manage to muster 20 minutes of family portraits and we actually LOOK happy in some of them. 

Like the hairdo?  Vivi's hair had previously been chin length on both sides until she and her brother decided to play barber shop and she chopped off one whole side (Not on the same day as the photo shoot or that would have sent me to therapy for sure).  We decided to make lemons from lemonade and turned it into a "style."  Shorter on one side and longer on another.  (She got so many compliments during those months when it was growing back out). 

(Notice new skirt | outfit change for Vivi in this picture?)  I must mention that when EG returned from the car with new clothes for Vivi, he didn't just bring a new change of clothes back to the park...he lugged Vivi's ENTIRE SUITCASE full of clothes back with him.  So yes, I was not only dealing with a dramatic four year old that jumped into the pond scum that day, I was also dealing with an over zealous husband that dramatically brought an entire suitcase through Central Park so that I would have my pickins of back up clothes.  To his credit, he knows me well and I'm sure I would have had something to say about his selection so he brought all TWENTY outfits to me for me to select myself!  haha, never a dull moment. 

 



(You can almost read EG's lips saying "Never Again!")



Looking back at these photos it reminds me that there will always be challenging times and it's just how we choose to make lemonade from the lemons.  Or smile even when your pink cowboy boots may be soaking wet with pond scum water.  Or pretend to laugh even when you may be gritting through your teeth ("why did i agree to do this?  never again!"--from eg).  Because when you look back in time and remember your life, it's easy to overlook the times when you may have been struggling, and nice to remember the times you chose and put one foot in front of the other.  Sometimes when you're mud deep in the midst of a struggle it's difficult to remember that things tend to work themselves out in time.  It's nice to have a happy reminder of that from time to time. 



xoxoxo
Heather from Vivid Hue Home

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Arek Blue Lily Photography, Central Park, family life, family portrait, NieNie Dialogues, NYC, Wendy Whitacre