Five Years

We are leaving for Montana for the week tomorrow so I will be away from the ol' blog for next week.  I have to quickly post that while we are away Ben will have his 5th birthday.  I will, of course, do a birthday post when we get home because five years is a big deal.  I've been a mom for five years.  That's longer than I was in high school or college, longer than we've owned either of our houses...and it will only accelerate from here once he starts elementary school next year.  At this time five years ago I was two days overdue after having my due date moved back two weeks earlier in the pregnancy and I felt like it was the longest pregnancy ever.  I had no idea what was coming or how labor would be.  I had a friend in her last month of pregnancy last year describe herself as "in the garden" as she awaited the birth of her child with uncertainty and some fear (it wasn't the first either) and that is really how I was feeling during the first week of March in 2012 although I didn't know how to articulate it like that. 

This morning, I looked back at my files to find some pictures for this post and what was I doing on March 3, 2012?  I want to punch myself but I was so bored that I went around to stores looking for marbles so I could do a Pinterest project with them involving boiling them in hot water and dunking them in an ice bath to make them crackly. 

I was also learning to use my new camera so these pictures are pretty cool looking.  But still...what would it feel like to have time like that again?  It's a cliché and everyone says this but I do miss those days even though I wanted them over so bad because I was so tired of being pregnant and I wanted to see that baby. 

Also, we learned to set up the pack and play Allan adopted the "new born nest" and I took about fifty pictures of it. 

Look at that floor...would you just LOOK at that pristine floor?

Also, we had recently gone to Scheel's to pose with NDSU's recently acquired championship trophy.  Who would have imagined there would be five of them five years later?

I was so big. 

OK, I have a lot to do to prepare for the trip so I have to quit writing now.  Until next week...Perhaps that poor giraffe on the live cam at that zoo will have had her baby by them too.  I feel you, April the giraffe, I really do...