My Life As a Cheerleader

 Ok, so I am not actually a cheerleader. At one time, yes, but that was many cellulite bumps and wrinkles ago. This past weekend, as I sat in the stands of yet another sporting event, I realized that much of my life revolves around sports. We literally move from one sport to the next with our boys. With 3 boys, who are all very much "into" sports, we spend endless hours jumping from one practice to the next. Last weekend, our hopes of having a free weekend were dashed when we finished up our basketball tournament on Saturday and started baseball practice on Sunday. Tucker, now 12, plays football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the spring and summer. Sawyer, who is 8, plays soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the spring and summer. He also ran track last season in the Junior Olympics. Carter, who is 6, plays t-ball in the Spring and is anxious for the day when he can join in on the other sports. Baseball season is just getting into full swing. We spent the last couple of days at baseball practice and getting gear to fit what has been outgrown. This seems to be the toughest sport to manage timewise. It is next to impossible to shuttle 3 kids to 3 different parks on the same days. Practices and games always seem to overlap. Although having the boys involved in sports takes a huge chunk of our time (and money), I truly enjoy being there to cheer them on when they make a great play or score those points. I sit in the stands beaming with pride when one of my sons step up to bat and smashes the ball for a homerun. I love to watch my speedy Sawyer steal the ball from the opponent like a flash of lighning and send the ball into the goal. I relish in watching Tucker lay out another player when he makes an amazing tackle. Seeing Carter tag a player out on his little tball team makes me cheer with delight. I am their biggest fan. I am their greatest cheerleader. It is one of my favorite parts of being a mother.

Top 10 Family Vacations

Our family loves to travel together more than anything else in the world. We spend a great deal of our conversations talking about trips we have already taken, trips we would like to take, or trips we are currently planning. I am writing this less than a week after our family returned from our first cruise and only a couple of months after we traveled to Yellowstone. I sat wondering, why is it that our family travels so often, where others do not? Then, I realized that we make traveling one of our top priorities. We don't have tons of money, but what we DO have, we basically spend on travel. We have never felt it really important to give our kids lots of "things", but instead choose to give our children our time and new experiences. Although we would love to have it, we do not have new cars, four wheelers, boats, or other luxury items. Almost every item of clothing we own comes from the thrift store and we rarely ever go out to eat. We typically travel in a camper and eat our own groceries, although a couple of our favorite trips, did not involve a camper. We use our tax money, gift money, overtime money, and any change we can dig out of the couch to put toward our next trip. Our love for travel is top on our list for how we spend our money. I have never regretted any of the money we spent of a vacation.

The idea of this "Top 10 Vacations" came about while traveling, of course. That is when our family has our best and most meaningful conversations. We were coming home from our cruise and we were discussing with the boys which trips they liked the best out of all the trips we had taken. We were interested to hear that we all were picking basically the same trips as our favorites and least favorites. We decided to make a list of all of the trips we had taken as a family and each rank them from 1-10. We then compiled our list and made our overall family list. The following is a list of our current "Top 10 Family Vacations". It will be interesting to see in the future, which vacations nudge out those that are already on the list.

#10 - Atlanta (Coca-Cola Factory and Aquarium)

#9 Dauphin Island, AL

#8 - Jekyll Island, GA

#7 - Mammoth Cave National Park, KY

#5 - Panama City Beach, FL

#4 - Cruise to Cozumel, Mexico

#3 - San Antonio, Texas

#2 - Disney Fort Wilderness Resort Campground
#1 - Yellowstone National Park

(Grand Tetons, Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Wind Cave)

#6 - Disney World Resort - Port Orleans

I can't believe he packed up his blankie

I have always been observant of small children. Noticing how they act, what they wear, their smile, their eyes, the likeness they are to their parents, their activity level, and their security items. I have seen kids with special dolls, pillows, blankets, diaper cloths, their mother's slips, beanie babies, and on and on. I never really quite understood why some kids wagged around some ratty old item with them wherever they went. That is, until I had children of my own. I am the mother of three perfectly well adjusted, secure boys who all three have had an attachment to a "security item." Tucker, being my oldest, was attached first to a small pillow. It was placed in his crib as an infant, mostly just because it was cute. It was covered in yellow John Deere fabric and was floppy and soft. He always slept with it in his crib and it didn't take long for the attachment to it to begin. I remember the first time as a young infant that I noticed he was using it as a "security blanket". I picked him up from his crib and he lurched toward his bed. I thought he was falling or playing a game, but he was reaching for his pillow. From that point on, everywhere Tucker went, his pillow was sure to be with him. In his cute "toddler talk" he named his pillow "Paa-buh". As preschool days approached, we had to make a rule that the pillow had to start staying at home. I convinced Tucker that if his pillow went to school with him, that he may lose it or his friends might love it and want to keep it. He was not a fan of the idea of sharing his pillow, so he agreed to leave it at home. After that, the pillow became his bed buddy. It stayed in his bed until time to go to sleep. As Tucker got older, the pillow kind of just became another pillow in his bed, until one day, he didn't need his pillow at all. Tucker put the pillow safely in our hope chest, where we keep special things, and told me that he didn't really want it anymore. He was in the third grade. I still remember the sinking feeling in my chest.

Sawyer was born just before Tucker's 4th birthday. I never thought about Sawyer becoming attached to special item like Tucker was. It wasn't long, though before Sawyer too became attached. As a very small baby, Sawyer liked to play with the strings and tags on his blankets, wrapping his fingers around the fringe of carpets and lacing his fingers through frayed towels. He started showing a huge preference to this huge blanket that we kept on our couch that had fringed edges. He wanted to drag it around the house and take it with him when we left the house. Seeing his attachment to the fringed blanket grow, I realized quickly that the gigantic blanket would become burdensome because of it's size. I enlisted Nana to create a baby blanket sized one for Sawyer that would be more portable. Nana was happy to make this creation for Sawyer, so off we went to the fabric store. Knowing that Sawyer specifically loved to play with the fringe on the big blanket, but not knowing exactly which fringe he liked the best, we carried him to let him pick out his own.

   Sawyer was still less than a year old, so we were just looking for something that might spark a reaction or that he may seem excited about. The fabric store had a full section with rows of fringe. Oh, we got a reaction alright! He was in fringe loving heaven! We couldn't decide which fringe he liked the most. The end result was a soft green baby blanket, cut in half, edged in a variety of different styles of fringe. This blanket immediately became Sawyer's favorite treasure.

His blanket was in his hands everywhere he went. The blanket went on vacation with us to Disney World, Texas, Kentucky, and Ohio. It has been tucked into suitcases. It has been stuffed next to Sawyer in strollers. The blanket has gone to restaurants and movies. It has been left in the back of the Cozy Coupe Car, fallen behind the bed frame, tucked into a toybox, and left in a wagon only to finally be discovered after hours of searching. It has been patched up, resewn, and washed countless times. A normal bath for the blanket occurred when Sawyer was occupied with another activity and it could be snuck into the washing machine without him noticing. Many, many times Sawyer could be found in front of the dryer door waiting for the dryer to buzz alerting him that his blanket was all clean and ready. Some evenings, the blanket would get forgotten in the washing machine and put into the dryer too late. Bedtime would come and the blanket would still be wet. The tears would flow until the blanket was lovingly tucked into Sawyer's arms again. I recall on more than one occasion racing Bradley to the dryer when we heard the buzzing sound because we both wanted the satisfaction of giving Sawyer back his clean blanket and seing the happy smile on his face. He would pour out love and hugs to whomever gave him back his favorite blanket.

During a prenatal Dr's visit when I was pregnant with Carter, Sawyer was tagging along carrying his beloved blanket. The blanket accidentally got left at the doctor's office. The office was called trying to retrieve it. Also contacted was the cleaning staff, the head office, patient information and any other person we might could speak with. The blanket was never recovered. Two very sad days followed until Nana created an exact replica of the blanket. You have never witnessed such a joyful toddler! For weeks after that, the blanket could not be pryed from his hands. I even carried him to a monogram shop to have his name put on it, in case he ever lost it again, it would be easier to reclaim it. The owner of the shop insisted that it would take her overnight to add his name, until she too witnessed the attachment. She promptly turned his nameless blanket to a blanket proudly displaying the name "Sawyer" on it. She couldn't bear to make him wait.

During Sawyer's baby and toddler years, his blanket became an extention of him. It was just a part of him. Preschool days were lurking during the summer Sawyer was 3. I knew that I would have to explain to Sawyer that his blanket couldn't go with him to preschool. I envisioned this conversation being infinitely more difficult for Sawyer than it was for Tucker. At first, the rule was a little more lax than with Tucker. The blanket just couldn't go to preschool. It was still allowed to travel in the car, go to Nana's, and be played anywhere else he liked. The transition wasn't too bad. He too was convinced by the idea that he might have to share it if he carried to to preschool.

As time passed by, the blanket began to be left in the bed more often than not. It was always there when he got ready to go to sleep, but by the time he started big school, he no longer played with it or needed it outside of night time. He spent the night with his friends a couple of times, and he still packed up his little blanket into his suitcase so that he could get it out at bedtime, until this last time. I wish I had known when I tucked him in the bed that night that it would be the last night he spent snuggled up with his blanket. I would have soaked it all in. I would have watched him sleep and watched his fingers wrap around the fringe for the last time. I would have grasped onto the last moment of his babyhood. Instead, the night passed like any other. I gave him a goodnight kiss and tucked in his covers with his little blanket by his side. The next morning the two of us worked together to pack his suitcase to go to his friends house. He excitedly chose his pajamas and clothes and tucked them into their place in the suitcase. I grabbed his blanket and pitched it in on top of his other things, as I have done other times before. He nonchalantly picked his blanket up and said, as if it were no bid deal, "I don't need this anymore. I'm gonna put it in that special box." And off he went, leaving me standing with my heart in my throat and tears in my eyes, stading in a wake of emotions. It has been a week since the blanket was tucked into the box. I half hoped he would go get it back out later. I still can't believe he packed up his blankie. I guess at this point, I need his security blanket more than he did.

The chest is now closed with the pillow and blanket inside. One day Carter too will tuck his blanket inside and not only will the chest be closed, but another phase in their life will too be closed.