Day 5: Photos from two years ago

These photos were taken in October 2008, exactly two years ago. Beckham looks so young - like a chubby little toddler - in these pictures. We were such good buddies - always laughing and playing together. There were so many changes going on with the constant moving and Jordan being gone a lot with school but no matter what was going on in our whirlwind lives, we were always learning to be a family together. I had never been a mom before, so it was all new to me. Beckham was discovering all that life had to offer and testing his limits, teaching me so much about seeing life through a child's eyes and being patient. I really focused a lot on making sure he got to experience everything. I wanted him to know what it felt like to run in the rain, play in the ocean, climb hay bales, jump down grassy hills, you name it. We were always out doing something. He was my adventure buddy. I'm a little sad to say that aspect of our lives has changed a little bit more than I'd like. With the addition of a second child to the family - who we love and adore and are happy to have in our family, don't get me wrong - we have a little less time for adventure. Instead more time is spent frantically searching for a missing shoe or getting both kids fed and teeth brushed and out the door on time without forgetting important things like diapers and sanity. I feel bad because Beckham plays alone a lot while I attend to diaper changing and feeding the baby. But, he doesn't seem to mind his alone time, and I try to make up for it by giving us some special time together when it's just the two of us. While the baby is napping we do some pretty random things, like build a train out of cardboard boxes (and it was a pretty elaborate train, too! It had wheels, a steering wheel, a seat for the conductor, seats for the passengers, doors to get into the train cars, a steam pipe, and even a Percy face to make it look like Beckham's most beloved cartoon train). I try to take them out to baby-friendly events like the apple orchard, or train rides through the woods, etc. But, sometimes I feel just a hint of guilt, like I'm just not doing as much for him as I used to. Then again, the experiences we are having now, of giving him a sibling to grow up with and teaching him to share his time and his toys and even his food - well, those experiences are priceless. I sure do love these kids. Have I said that already? I feel like I can't say it enough.


Okay, so this next one is not the best photo, per se, but I chose it because it shows a few key changes since then. I have since upgraded to two different jogging strollers - one of them a double to accommodate TWO little munchkins instead of one. And this photo shows precisely what I was doing a lot of two years ago. With only one kid to manage and sharing a car with Jordan (who was out of town doing an away rotation during the month of October in 2008), I took a lot of walks in order to just get out of the house. A lot. We had just moved to Fayetteville, NC - the city with absolutely no sidewalks. But, that didn't stop me from finding all sorts of funky ways to get from point A to point B. Having a high-energy 2-year-old at the time, it was far better for me to get him out of the house for a nice long walk, followed by a nice long adventure at the park, which inevitably led to a nice long nap for him and study time for me. I really took for granted how simple it was to have only one child. In fact, I think I complained a lot about how busy I was all the time and how much work it was to be a full-time mom. Oh, I didn't even know the half of it! Everything is much more chaotic now with two kids. Twice as chaotic. Whoever it was that told me that having two wasn't that much more work than one was either tricking me or had really easy children. But I still wouldn't trade this chaotic life for anything. I have the most amazing husband. My kids are great. My life is great. We stay busy, which is sometimes a great thing and sometimes a stressful thing, but in the end we have each other.