Monday, June 23, 2008

a family affair


james is the youngest child (not grandchild) in our family and he just turned a whopping 9-years-old, which is OLD! for the youngest child in our family. where are we all going? why must we grow so quickly?

james was my "buddy". my mom made a system where the three oldest children each had a buddy with the three youngest. that meant we buckled our buddy in to his car seat (or just made sure he got in to the car, if you were that sort of buddy), got him ready for church and kept an eye on him at home. i failed that part miserably. david and james were two years apart but alike in maturity and curiosity. they were Trouble. in fact, too many times in a row had they woken up strangely early and dumped raw eggs all over the carpet. my mom bought all the safety locks the child safety store had (which they broke, sometimes within minutes) and finally settled on a padlock and chain. it was so much work for the adults to get in to the fridge that we just didn't. we ate bread and water instead (and visitors in to our home found it odd as well).

and then there were all the rocks in the pool, the string cheese smeared all over the sliding glass door, the stolen candy that they later "found" outside in the backyard (and had no idea how it got there). . .

oh boys. now they just want to play computer games and shoot guns and it's a little sad to see them get so tall. and yet, it is such a relief to not have to wash an entire jar of peanut butter off of their bodies (and the dog).

happy birthday, jamos amos!

3 comments:

tara said...

I feel your nostalgia. I loved my brothers when they were little, despite the misshaps. Now their cheeks aren't as chubby, they care about how they are dressed and listen to mainstream music. Oh the memories.

Liz said...

Fun and funny memories. Must have been frustrating when they were happening, but they sure are funny when you look back from this vantage point! :)

Manda said...

I remembered this morning that yesterday was James' birthday but I forgot to call to wish him a happy birthday.
We're all getting older and it's weird to me too. You're having your second child. Aaron is going into high school. David is going into middle school and James is probably going to be taller than me by Christmas. Me? I'm almost done with my freshman year in college. It's crazy!!
Don't you sometimes miss being able to play games of kick the can and beanie babies all the time? I do...