“All of us are we – and everyone else is they. A family shares things like dreams, hopes, possessions, memories, smiles, frowns, and gladness… A family is a clan held together with the glue of love and the cement of mutual respect. A family is shelter from the storm, a friendly port when the waves of life become too wild. No person is ever alone who is a member of a family.”
-Rudyard Kipling
As the day gets closer and closer to the addition of a little boy into our family, we’ve been getting prepared. The room is ready, bags are packed, clothes are washed, and vacation has been booked. Even Ashlyn seems to be planning ahead. It’s not an uncommon site in our house to see Ashlyn changing Violet’s diaper. This is not a simple child version of the process but a full fledged effort that includes the changing mat and a baby wipe.
I’m not holding my breath on her doing any real diaper changing (smell pun not intended) but it’s nice to see her getting into the fun.
Speaking of fun, we took the opportunity over Memorial Day weekend to head out to the lake and enjoy a little nature. In Ashlyn’s world this means “sit in a wading pool”. This she did, and she did it a lot. There were cups, some splashing, and a lot of smiles.
At one point we were able to successfully pry her out of the pool for a ride on the boat. I was surprised how much convincing it took given that she kept talking about riding on the boat all morning, but once she was ready she was off and running. Literarily, we had to call her back for fear that would keep running right off the dock. It was pretty windy this weekend, so we only got to ride on it once, but she had a good time.
The next day she wanted to go back on the boat, but we had to get back home. After running around town we stopped by Chick-Fil-A for a sandwich and tried to convince Ashlyn to get in the play area. She wouldn’t. Despite her complete lack of fear when it comes to jumping on the trampoline, the couch, or anything else, she seems to be afraid of heights when it comes to simply walking or climbing on things.
I’m sure she’ll get over it.