Firsts

Do you remember the first time you shaved?  I totally do.  I was in sixth grade (after this girl, Lisa, came to school with her legs shaved and so Barbie doll smooth.  She laid back on the playground with her legs in the sun like it was THE thing to do.  I think it was almost summer at the end of the year.

I started with an electric shaver (do they even still make those?) and shaved off my long blonde leg hairs. : )  Kinda messy that first time.  And then there were the first (100 times?) of razor shaving where I sliced off ankle and knee like sandwich meat.  I had this belief that you had to push hard.  oh so wrong.

Well..my girl is there.  Now I have a walking baby and a shaving baby.  She raised her arms HiGH last night at the baseball game in her tank top. . . and I saw hair under her arms!  (and she'd DiE if she knew I was writing this down! so...shhh!) (maybe one day she'll be glad I saved it for posterity?)  So, we talked about her needing to shave every shower now.  (pits, not legs yet ; )

So, after a long game night last night, and a big 'ol warning not to raise her arms or wear sleeveless shirts today.. we had a Meeting in the bathroom tonight.  She got her very own pink razor with a moisturizing strip (she wanted no part of electric shaving), we lathered up together in tank tops, and. . . Shaved.  Together.  Since if you are going to have razor burn, you might as well have it together.  Call it bonding. ; )

She needed help stretching her arm pit out a little, and I helped her lather and stretch.  I just can't believe she's almost eleven.  And needs to shave.  I just thought maybe she'd shave before she actually needed to.  And that might be in a couple years?  Wrong.

Ok, just had to share.  My babies are growing up.   But I am so proud of the little people they are!  So..let me add this before you think they are all perfect. ; )

Last night, Ethan was taking a rubber mallet to our tulips along the back fence line.  He was literally slamming each one..kind of like playing croquet with each big fat, beautiful flower.  I gasped for air like a guppy out of water, and Ches ran outside to grab the mallet.  Ches had words with him and brought him inside.  As soon as he came in, I told him he'd lost his cake (the last of Carter's birthday cake!).  He cried like a baby.  He had time out, and we talked about how he was destroying those gorgeous flowers God had created.  And making his momma s.a.d.

Fast forward to later..and his daddy came to tell me that he (Ches) wasn't very honest, but Ethan was.  I asked to see Ethan.  He told me that during his bath, Daddy had said he could have his cake piece out in the garage or outside so mommy wouldn't know.  He told Daddy that wouldn't be honest. (!) We had the sweetest talk, and he knows I *heart* truth-tellers.  They melt my heart.  So..he got his cake.  I just had to reward him for his honesty.  A few flowers might have had to suffer..but somewhere the honesty lesson got through.  Whew, two steps forward, one step back.  Every day.

What parenthood is all about.  I'm going to count it as some tiny steps forward, regardless. 

Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching.  They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.

Proverbs 1:8-9