Friday Photo Flashback

I’m not trying to rush into Fall, because Lord knows most of us want to enjoy what is left of Summer! This is that time of year when you start seeing the posts about summer not being over and to stop talking about pumpkin spice lattes!

I was looking for a specific photo this week for another piece and stumbled on some early Ella photos. I probably blogged about this when it happened, but it is worth a repost for those newer followers.

My wife is the Tik-Tok-er and Pinterest-er in our house. She is always saying “I saw this great idea on Pinterest” or sending me Tik-Tok videos on how to do a home project. That being said, She had seen a baby photo shoot on Pinterest and thought we should do it with Ella. We needed apples, small pumpkins, a tub, and milk.

Ella is about 7 to 8 months old in this picture.

We have this huge tree in our yard, which allowed for the “fallen leaves” look on the lawn. We filled the tub with warm water, added a splash of milk for the effect and floated some apples and gourds in the water. This photo is one of my favorites from this session.

I have to be honest with you, I’m having a really rough time this week. I shouldn’t be, as I have been through this twice before with my two oldest boys. My brain just can’t comprehend that Ella is starting pre-school next week. How did this happen so fast?

Wednesday night, she was awake when I got home from work. I’m not sure if she had a bad dream or what, but Sam told me to go check on her. When I walked into her room she was on her tablet. Mommy had told her that I was close to home and that she could wait up for me.

She smiled when I walked in. I crawled into bed next to her and asked if she was ok. She told me she was and asked if she could finish what she was playing on her tablet. I told her she could play for 5 minutes and then it was time for bed.

When I told her that her time was up, she turned off her tablet, snuggled up close to me and asked me to hold her. I kissed her on her forehead and she asked me to sing songs for her. Her new thing is to hold my hand while I sing to her. I sang all of her favorites: The Alphabet Song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Mr. Golden Sun, Let Me Call You Sweetheart, You Are My Sunshine, and our song, Vieni Su. She was still awake and asked for more, so I pulled out some other ones that I used to sing to my older boys: Cruising Down the River, Watching the World Go By, On An Evening in Roma, Bouna Sera, Blue Shadows on the Trail, and more. I think I had to go back to sing songs from the first list again before she fell asleep.

As I sang those songs, I was painfully reminded that my little girl is becoming a big girl way too fast. I am still blessed that she wants to snuggle with me, sit on my lap, and hold my hand. All too soon, those things slip away. As I laid there next to her, I took in the love that was in her eyes every time she opened them to look at me. When she fell asleep, I continued to hold her and thanked God for bringing four amazing children into my life.

The emotional state I am in may or may not have been kick started by the barrage of “First day of school” photos on social media this week. My old radio boss posted a photo of his daughter who is now in 5th grade and talked about how he couldn’t believe it. I wrote under the picture, “With each passing year, Kenny Chesney’s song Don’t Blink takes on a whole new meaning.”

As I posted that, I realized that I wasn’t just saying that to him, I was reminding myself of just how precious time is. I was also reminding myself of just how fast time can fly.

“Don’t Blink.”

Friday Photo Flashback

This week’s Friday Photo Flashback is brought about by my wife. The kids both have bikes with training wheels on them. We’ve had them outside a few times on them and Andrew seems to get how to pedal, but Ella needs a bit of help.

My wife is what I would call a “Tik Tok-er.” Between that and Pinterest, she always seems to be coming up with creative things for the kids and projects for me. She video called me this week and said, “The kids want to show you something.” She turned the phone around and there were my two kids on their bikes – in out living room!

The bike’s training wheels were each lodged inside a tennis shoe. This does two things 1) the bike doesn’t move and 2) it raises the back tire up a bit so it spins while they pedal. Brilliance! They will be pedaling in no time outside!!

It made me think to when I first learned how to ride a bike. I remember being terrified when my dad took off the training wheels! Today’s photo shows a very proud Keith on his first ride without falling!

This historic event took place at the first home I lived in. Isn’t it amazing that I can remember the entire address and phone number from this house and have trouble remembering where I left my wallet on most days!?

At the time our house was the last one on the block. There was a field next to our house. There was a pond that we’d catch tadpoles at in the summer, and play on the ice in the winter. They have since built a bunch of homes where the field was. about 10-15 years ago, I DJ’d a wedding out that way and had to take a drive by the old house. I was really surprised at how much had changed.

I know that I am riding toward our driveway in the picture. I probably fell off that bike countless times and fell on our neighbor’s lawn while trying to figure out how to balance. I don’t remember much about the bike except that it was black and had big fenders over the tires. I also notice from this photo that it would seem to be a girl’s bike – URGH!

My folks must have known I would fall and scrape my knees, so they picked an extremely ugly pair of plaid pants for me to wear for the occasion. Brown shoes, plaid pants and a mustard colored shirt – I am a style ICON here, huh? It appears that I am either holding something in my left hand OR that just might be that Rrraw Power thing that made the motorcycle noise. I honestly don’t remember. I think it would be weird for me to try to ride my bike for the first time while holding onto something, though.

I don’t really remember much from the neighborhood, but I remember that big white rock at the corner across the street from me. I want to say that the owner used to edge his lawn with a really wide edger. My bike tire got caught in it once and I fell against that rock. FYI for all the adults reading – kids on bikes HATE lawns that are edged!!

It’s kind of fun to see that old blue and white Suburban in that driveway. I wish I had more pictures of the many old cars my folks drove. One thing you can barely notice (and this is where I wish old photos were clearer) is what looks like a Big Wheel on the sidewalk between the parent on the sidewalk on the kid on the bike in the street. I could be dead wrong, but it sure looks like those 1970’s yellow Big Wheel handlebars to me.

We moved from this house in the winter of 1976. I truly wish I had more pictures of the outside and inside of that house. I’ve often thought about going to the house and explaining that I used to live there and asking to have a look around. In today’s society, I highly doubt anyone would let that happen!

A Week In Review

Tonight I return to work after being off for 6 days. The best thing about being off was being able to spend time with my family. Naturally, I had my camera ready and caught many wonderful moments.

Wednesday

We were very minimal with the ornaments we put on the tree this year. Ella is all about the tree and the lights already. The special ones we did put up were more toward the top of the tree, while the “generic” ones were toward the bottom of the tree. Ella can reach over the gate that we have around the tree and gets to those. It was probably smart to keep the extra fragile ones in the box this year.

We did make sure to put AJ’s ornament close to Ella’s matching ornament from last year, though.

Wednesday, my brother sent a package to the kids with a few outfits from the Disney store. I am pretty sure that my kids first Disney trip will be accompanied by Uncle Chris! He sent Ella a Christmas Minnie Mouse, who she has been hugging on since she arrived.

My wife is a “Pinterest Mom.” She is always on there looking for things. She found a recipe for homemade Play-Doh. It was messier to make than to play with. It consisted of cake frosting and powdered sugar. Once it was made, Sam gave Ella a rolling pin and cookie cutters and they were playing with it. She certainly had fun.

Thanksgiving Day

Our family stayed home this year. With Covid numbers rising, we felt it best to just celebrate at home. A few years ago, I bought a silly turkey hat at the Christmas Tree Store. Ella took pictures in it last year, and naturally, I had to pull it out again to get more!

Last year’s picture is her in this same hat in front of the Christmas tree, too. AJ is just too small for the hat to fit him, but I had to get at least one of him in his “First Thanksgiving” shirt near it …

Once the turkey was in the oven, I sat down to watch the Detroit Lions lose another game. It seems like they always find ways to lose! It looked like they actually might win this one, but as usual, stupid penalties helped them add another “L” to their record.

Friday

I can say that in my entire life, I have only been Black Friday shopping once! That was enough. We spent the day relaxing at home on Friday. My wife went out briefly to run a couple errands, but no shopping was done!

We’ve been trying to get AJ as much “floor time” as we can. As I sat next to him on the floor, Ella came over and decided she was going to lay next to him. There was lots of laughter and giggling.

Saturday

I picked Dimitri up in the afternoon and he pretty much stayed in his room playing on the X-Box. He brought over some game called Halo. It’s one of those “kill the aliens” games. While he was doing that, I was watching the U of M/Ohio State game. As a Michigander, whether you are a Michigan State fan or U of M fan, you ALWAYS root for whoever is playing Ohio State.

I wasn’t really sure if the Wolverines were going to pull off a win, and there were many sports folks saying that Ohio State was probably going to win. I was happy to see Michigan walk away with the win. So was AJ, who celebrated on Ella’s U of M blanket!

Sunday

It snowed pretty much all day on Sunday. Dimitri usually stays with me until evening, but said he wanted to go home around 2:30 that afternoon. When I returned home, I noticed that the snow was perfect “Snowman making” snow. I grabbed Ella’s snow pants and got her dressed and we went outside.

She walked around the yard and wasn’t sure what to make of things. I made a snowball and started rolling it for the bottom of our snowman. She watched me and I tried to get her to help me. She was more interested in just sitting in the snow or laying in it. The snowman was never completed.

Instead, we walked around to the front of the house, where she sat and pointed out the colors of the oversized Christmas bulbs. She then returned to the back yard, where I grabbed the sled that Sam’s dad gave us. I placed her in it and pulled her around the yard. At first, she seemed confused by it, but by the middle of the ride, she was all smiles!

She eventually walked back to the trampoline, which was covered in snow, and wanted to jump on it. Why not!? She had a blast! I could see that her nose was red and I knew it was time to bring her in the house, but that was a challenge. She loves being outside! I eventually talked her into going to see mommy inside. I had so much fun with her outside! Hopefully, next snowfall, we’ll finish that snowman!

Monday

I had my physical Monday morning. It went sort of how I expected it would. I will probably blog about it in more detail separately.

The highlight of the entire day was close to bedtime. I was reading Ella some books, which as soon as I was finished with, she’d take them to mom to read. As I took this picture, and reflected on Thanksgiving, I realized just how lucky I am and how thankful I am for my family.

I hope that you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving!