Today, the Sweet Man and I helped this boy...
... buy his first car.
It's been very much an experience like what the Daddy goes through in
that great Suburu commercial (you know the one)...
... but I gotta say, it's not like I turned around
and The Boy went from the mysteriously smiling seven-year-old
to the almost-twenty-one-year-old he is overnight.
Nope, I'm feeling every minute of the twenty years it took to get
from caring for these bitty babies...
... to having a son who towers over me.
HOWEVER,
like the above commercial, I am PAINFULLY aware of how vulnerable
the Boy and the Girl are when they get behind the wheel.
For the love of the sweet baby Jeebus, people,
please stay out of their blind spots!
Don't brake too fast in front of them!
Don't even THINK about having too many drinks and drifting into their lanes!
Ahem.
*
*
*
*
Anyhoo, looking at the above photo of the baby Boy and Girl
makes me remember their baby quilts, which you can see behind them.
I worked on those throughout my pregnancy, staying up late when I couldn't sleep,
hand-quilting them while I listened to Bob Costas interview random celebrities on Later.
(I spent so many late nights listening to Costas, that it's a wonder one of the babies didn't emerge sporting a side-part and a tie.)
I finished the Girl's quilt on the night of August 6th;
the babies were born on the morning of August 8th.
They came home from the hospital wrapped in their quilts,
and slept under them in their shared crib.
The Girl latched onto a silky-edged receiving blanket as her Lovey,
but the Boy loved that star quilt,
and carried it with him, and wrapped his stuffed animals in it,
and slept with it until it was raggedy enough that I had to replace the binding.
Fortunately, although worn enough you could poke a finger clean through,
it looked just fine all those years,
and not so babyish that a not-so-baby would feel silly taking it over to his cousins' house.
So, y'know, keep that in mind when giving a quilt to a new baby.
How is that quilt going to look when your baby is older?
When your baby is maybe six and cuddling his quilt,
what would he like to take to a sleepover?
Maybe... instead of giving a little guy a pale blue lambykins quilt,
hows about a cooler shark quilt?
And would you rather see your daughter haul around a pastel pink heart quilt
Your kids will probably outgrow their quilts before they get their driver's licenses,
but you never know. So instead of a powder-blue teddy bear quilt...
Why not a sugar skull quilt that can double as a "seat protector"?
If for no other reason,
it's something you wouldn't mind seeing for the next however many years.
