Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Today marks the beginning of a very busy week in my family. Over the course of these next six days, three of us, two of our kids and myself, have birthdays. In addition, and just to keep things interesting and us on our toes, Valentine’s Day is thrown into the mix.

Whew!

Although some families might opt to do one big celebration, we don’t—never have. In our family, we maintain that each person deserves their very own day of observance. And so, we celebrate, and celebrate and celebrate some more, welcoming in each special day as it arrives.

Today was our youngest son’s birthday, both joyful and a little sad. Sad, for I realized in short order, we’ll be teaching him, our last, how to drive.

How to drive? How did that happen? And so fast? Wasn’t he just crawling yesterday?

And I know that from when he begins to drive, the rest of his growing up will seem to flash by in a blink.

Straddling Valentine’s Day, my birthday comes first, followed by my daughter’s, the one who just had baby Kai. And if swallowing the pill of geez how did our youngest son grow up so fast isn’t hard enough to swallow, I constantly find myself marveling over just how fast our little girl grew up and then became a mother herself.

Though this week is crammed full of festivities, mutual appreciations and remembrances being made, I try not to have it become one big blur. Instead, I strive to savor each and every bit of it, tucking away events that happen into my memory to be pulled out later, when things are a little less hectic, so I can then view them while more relaxed and with great fondness.