Bye Bye Bibs and Perfect Sundays

I was cleaning up my computer desktop and found this image:

It's from October and represents a Perfect Hilarious Family Sunday. All of us on the bed playing Hot Wheels. As you do. Hopefully Kurt will not try to recreate this scene with the new slot car track he Harper got for Christmas.

I love this picture. Pure relaxed fun.

 

When we moved out to remodel the house, things that had been jammed into the tiny old kitchen ended up at the new rental. I cleaned some stuff out, donated them to charity, etc but some stuff stayed. Like these bibs which were on a magnet on the fridge.

When we moved back to our house, these got donated. Harper hadn't really used a bib in ages, but somehow they stayed. They are one of the last baby things to go from the house. The other is the monitor which I'm weaning Harper off of. If I'm honest, I'm weaning myself off of it. It's really been a year or two too long to still have a monitor. Harper is adjusting to not just calling my name at night. I'm the one who jumps when she opens her door when we are watching TV after she's gone to bed to say, "Mama, I want to read a book." For some reason she needs me to come in and watch while she picks books to "read" then get back into bed with them. It's sweet and why I ever tell her no to reading?

At the doctor for Harper's Five year check up, the nurse asked her to put on a paper gown! OMG it was really Big Girl time. Additional cuteness was when the doc when to check her ears, on her own, Harper held her hair away from her ears for him. Adorable.

Next year is a new year with some travel and then kindergarten to look forward to. Yowza.

 

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Today Is A Day

Today is my sister Jennifer's birthday. She would have been 54.

She's been gone for almost nine years and memory is starting to play tricks on me. Was she here when we were talking about having kids? No. What did she think of Obama as president. Oh wait, she died before he got elected. Blows my mind to realize how much time that represents. And all of Harper's life, she has not been here for and she would have been such a fun auntie, now that her kids are grown. I have false memories of being pregnant and talking to her about it. In my mind I just assume she was there and then have to specifically remember that no, she was not.

We were so different. She would not have been into Hamilton and maybe concerned that I let Harper listen to it with all the swear words. Or not. That was the Jen I knew nine years ago. The whole election would have been a potentially challenging place. We were very different politically and while I can't say who she would have voted for, I know we would have had very different opinions. I wonder where we would have found common ground. It's a mind game to play, every day. What would Jen have thought?

There is always so much to say about this. And yet I don't want to say it anymore. I'm a pouty kid, grumpy and stomping my feet "It's not fair!"

Life's not fair, kid. Life is life.