Four Years Old

I never want to forget Isaac's excitement during our first few hours at the cabin. He was all over the place, saying, "Look at me mom! Look at how I can sit on the bed! And, lay on the bed! And jump between beds! And, run across the nightstand between beds! Look mom, look, look, look at me!!!" Then it was out to the porch for some, "Look mom! Look at how I can walk on the porch! See how I can tiptoe? See how I can run? Look, look, look at me!!!" And so on and so forth.

Into the nighttime hours he was still walking around, chest puffed out like a peacock, saying things like, "Yeah, we live here now. This is our new home." When we packed up on Sunday, he cried genuine tears of sadness over leaving.

All three of my older kids entertained themselves by collecting rocks throughout the weekend. Ian ended up with a huge ziplock baggie full and notions about selling the largest ones for a big profit when we got home. Brian said we should leave all the rocks there because it's such a hassle to have rocks floating all over the house (where they always seem to end up in spite of the "keep them outside" rule). But, I thought we should let them pick a few favorites to take home. It seems like our kids are always collecting rocks right now, but, in a blink of an eye, rocks will no longer hold the same magic for them anymore. Soon it will be IPODs and then cars and dates and off to college before we know it. Then I'm sure we will miss the days when rock collections graced our home.

Even this morning, as the kids were getting ready, they had those rocks out, rinsing and polishing them. Discussing which ones were igneous and which ones were sedimentary and wagering on which ones were solid marble. Now Sophie and Ian are off to their first day of school. Katie is sleeping. Isaac is in the tub. And, I am daydreaming about more days like this one. When things are just a little bit quieter and calmer and lunch at a girlfriend's house is a real possibility.