So it has been a long time since I updated the blog. I wish that life was  a little slower so that I could update it more often. But as in the words of Ferris Beuller "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while you could miss it." (That is my all time favorite movie for anyone who doesn't know.) This last Thursday was Elijah's 1st birthday! It was a hard day for me for tow reasons: 1. I don't like my baby growing up so fast and 2. Elliott was out of town. Elliott was in Alaska of all places and originally we had planned to go with him as a family, but again life got in the way. Elliott needed an insulin pump and we needed to buy a new car, so we decided to not go this year. The lightning comittee he serves on goes to Alaska every few years so we will get another chance when the kids are older. I am grateful for my good friend Tonya who spent the day with us and even braved Chik-Fil-A with us and five kids between us. I would have been super sad and lonely that day without her. Our little man seemed very aware that his birthday was a special day for him. Anytime anyone sang Happy Birthday he got all excited, clapped, bounced and smiled form ear to ear. It's bittersweet seeing him grow up. Everyone tells you when you have a baby to cherish the time because it goes so fast. This seems like easy enough advice but how many of us really cherish the time? I know I am guilty of this. It's hard to cherish the time when your children are so wild that they make you want to run away. It's hard to cherish the tantrums and the whining. But we should cherish it. Yes, one day the tantrums will be past, but guess what so will the baby/toddler stage. (yes, I know teenagers have their own set of tantrums.) On his first birthday Elijah did not get something that he wanted and threw himself to the floor kicking and screaming. I admit I laughed a little bit because it was so over the top ridiculous, but it also means that the tantrum phase is starting. I do not enjoy this stage, but I am going to try and cherish it.
As mother's I think we too often get caught up in the competition of everything. Every doctor visit and pretty much every interaction we have with other mothers is characterized by comparing our children.We are constantly comparing them to others development. Now, I'm not saying that this is all bad. If not for the "norms" we wouldn't realize if there were developmental problems. But I do think that all of this competition lends itself to our failing to cherish the little stuff. We get so caught up with "I can't wait until he does this" or "My son is way ahead in this", that we totally miss that we should be enjoying those things. We constantly scour magazines, and books to see what they should be doing by this age. Sometimes we forget to just stop and look around. On Elijah's birthday I took him to the small playground at the mall. He spent the better part of the time there just climbing up and then back down the stairs of the  slide. To some this may seem really boring, but because I had nothing else to do I just watched him and marveled at him. He was learning right before my eyes. Seeing his little brain make connections between what he was doing and what he wanted to happen was truly magical. Had I been to busy reading my kindle or texting my friends, I would have missed it. So my advice this time, and it is some that I need to do a better job at heeding is to remember Ferris. "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Because the last thing I want is too look back at this magical time and think "I should have slowed down and enjoyed it more."