5 years, 5 months, 1 day
2 years, 4 months
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| Me and my Boy |
Everyday is a blog post in my mind: moments of joy, pain, sorrow, exhaustion, happiness. I love Instagram for this. It provides me with snippets of my life so that I can scroll through and remember - whether it be a remarkable event or part of the day to day who-ha. When I spend the time to look back, I can almost picture myself there in that moment in time. It's a beautiful thing.
Alas, my blog posts have dwindled down to nothingness over the years. I've failed to put into writing so much of the growth and excitement of Aspen's first few years of life. Dear girl, I am so sorry that you came second. I do not love you any less, of this you can be absolutely certain.
I keep wanting to write a blog...and then life catches up with me...and then instead of one thing to write about, there are 20 things...100 things...thousands... But tonight I will start again at one. Cherish the moment I am taking now. To focus on just one beautiful moment in time.
I just returned last night from my last rotation of OB training away from home... over 5 weeks away since February. I can't express how wonderful it feels knowing that I am here to stay. Home. This evening I had the greatest gift - a reward, you might say, for being present with my children once again.
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| Easter with my beautiful family |
I picked Colter up from school, Aspen in tow. It was a soccer day! Yes, exciting, but also requiring the shuttling of children, planning of extensive snacks and the knowledge that I would need to converse with adults (ha!). I don't mind any of these things, really. Colter immediately ran to me, clinging to my legs with a mild whimper. Not his typical greeting but I just figured he had really missed me (because I'm self-centered like that). I opened Colter's lunch in the car to see if he had any snacks leftover. Lo and behold he had an entire lunch leftover. I proceeded to lecture my poor, dear, sweet five year old about the process of energy breakdown in the body. How without lunch, his growing little body would never be able to play soccer. I'm pretty sure there was a soap box under my driver's seat. Naturally, this explained his whiny, pathetic behavior as well.
Thankfully, I was able to convince my child to shove some food into his gut in the few minutes prior to practice. I rammed on his shin guards, soccer socks and jersey. It was a rather chilly, windy afternoon and the storm clouds beckoned in the distance. Colter was cold. Poor little dude doesn't have an ounce of fat on him. I gave him one last handful of goldfish and guided him out on the field. All the while thinking, Well, we'll see how this practice goes.
I plopped down next to a fellow mom with a girl a year older than Aspen. The girls started playing and the mom and I chatted away. I did the occasional wave to my boy, who checked in on me frequently to be sure my eyes were peeled his way. The other parents know my shy lad. His sensitive nature is to be admired.
Practice went on, I relaxed and a few drops fell from the sky. Five minutes before the end of practice something beautiful happened. Colter, who typically runs with the "mob", flocking around the ball and running back and forth cheerfully, suddenly broke away. He was not alone. He had the ball! Not only did he have the ball, he was dribbling the ball! He skirted around the edge of the mob, then turned sharply toward the goal. Still dribbling! (I was yelling like a frantic woman at this point, along with the other fellow mamas...) He ran in front of the goal, pulled back his leg and SCORED.
I know there are many moments in my life that should hold more weight than this moment - college graduation, marriage, the births of my children - but, believe you me, in this instant there was nothing else in my mind but my darling son on that soccer field. I'd be lying if I said tears weren't brimming in my eyes. I'd be lying if it took every ounce of my being to not run to him and lift him up on my shoulders. The other moms were all congratulating me. So this is what it feels like to be a soccer mom. The boy that was least expected to score...the boy that forgot to eat lunch today...here he was shocking us all.
The smile on his face was one for the books. He even had a little "hop" in his step those last few minutes of the game. Well played, boy, well played.
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| Soccer Star |
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