The Importance of the Mundane

When my grandma moved out of her house last summer my dad acquired stacks and stacks of my grandpa's calendar journals.  It turns out that my grandpa had been recording little facts about each day for most of his life and he had saved the calendars for years and years. Like 40 years.  Such things just fascinate me.  Thinking about how some small phrase such as "Maren's graduation" and "Tim and family left for overseas" can be just a glimpse into a much larger and very important story in a family history appeals to the history lover in me I guess.  Even the mundane entries about farming and weather give insight.  I suppose this same fascination is why I haven't been able to throw away my school assignment books from high school and college.  The high school books, which were school issued so we all had matching ones, are full of funny scribbles, notes and inside jokes between classmates that instantly bring memories flowing back.  And the college ones, which I generally purchased from the school bookstore because they had important school calendar dates and breaks already printed in them, are like a condensed diary of the endless fun and busyness of Greek life and the other fun school activities of an involved student who really did live life to the fullest during those wonderful youthful years.  Well, I made the most of my college years socially.  I wish I could say the same for academically.  I really didn't challenge myself the way I could have!

So, I try to keep this in mind on days when I feel like I don't really have anything to write about and end up just sharing pictures of the kids.  What they are interested in and like to do during a certain week could change my next week so I can look back on this post and look back into my life at that time.  I admit that I have to consult my blog posts sometimes when filling out baby books or trying to remember when they started doing something!  Speaking of that, this weekend I completed Tessa's baby book!  And by completed I made it to the last first birthday page.  There is still room for updating if necessary. 

Here are a few recent pictures. 

 

Here is Tessa looking at the "American Girl" catalogue.  The Carter's catalogue with all the pictures of babies was getting ripped beyond help so I found this buried in a stack somewhere.  When she saw this page she said, "Aaaaaahhhh baybeeeees!"

 

Here she is yesterday.  I realized all was quiet in the living room...too quiet...which as any parent or person who has been responsible for children knows usually means they are doing something naughty.  But she was just sitting on the couch reading!  The whole living room is like a book explosion.  Her first act every morning is to open the cupboards where the books are and drag all of the books all over the house.  It is insane.  Books are everywhere. 

 

We had two "kid" New Year's resolutions.  One was to get Ben toilet trained (success!) and the other was to take Tessa's pacifier away.  Well...that last one isn't really happening yet.  She just had a tough month of molar teething and wasn't sleeping very well so we didn't want to make it even worse for everyone.  And now she can put two in her mouth at once.  She's so gifted. 

Here is Ben this morning.  Justin built him this lego airplane/monster truck hybrid last night and he likes it enough that he hasn't ripped it to pieces yet.  He found a hair tie of mine laying around the house somewhere (they are everywhere) and decided it was a rope and then he decided he wanted more ropes so he hurdled over the baby gate blocking the master bathroom, went into the drawer where I keep my "ropes" and took all of them out.  And then he did this with them.  He's strange.  However, it is better than his recent favorite activity which is stacking all of the flat legos in the house into one big tower and then demanding that I take them apart because he bites off his fingernails and can't do it himself.  This has been driving me CRAZY.  I am ready to hide all the flat legos because now my nails are ragged.  I have started using my teeth to pull the flat legos apart. 

And finally, I can't forget about Allan.  Here is a picture of him from this morning with book and magazine wreckage in the background. 

 

Doesn't he look like a sweet, cuddly little kitten?  I know, he doesn't.  This is his "attack" face, with ears pushed back.