So one of the beautiful things about moving – even if it is, as in our case, a partial, temporary move or “Temporary Domestic Relocation” as it is called – is that a whole lot of purging gets done. A whole lot of projects on the to-do list also get done. Crossing things off my “To-Do Sometime This Decade List” has been my favorite part of this entire process. A few examples . . .
We remodeled two years ago and never put mirrors back in the bathroom, the mirrors have now been purchased. (Installation will probably happen two years from now when we return. Wouldn’t want to have an empty to do list. It would mean I was dead or something.)
In 1980 my mother transcribed onto 638 pages of paper the dozen or so audio tapes my father made before he passed away. I’ve been meaning to have them scanned and digitized since about 2003. It’s done.
In 2000 when my husband and I got married he bought me diamond earrings. They have been sitting in my jewelry box for almost 11 years because the backs kept coming off and I never took them in to have locking backs put on. It’s done.
When we moved into this house in 2005 I put all of my old correspondence and school papers in a giant purple plastic tub. It has been sitting in various places in our house since then. It is now sorted and purged and what I kept is filed and labeled.
The giant unorganized pile of pictures, papers, baby things and kid momentos I have been collecting for the last eight years . . . the pile filling an entire closet and spilling out into our bedroom . . . has been sorted and organized and purged and stored appropriately.
It was in undertaking that last item that I came across a few kid quotes and stories I had the presence of mind to record. I’m going to relay them here not because they are extraordinarily funny or spectacular but because they are special to me and they bring to mind those exacts moments in my with absolute clarity. So this is for preservation purposes for me . . .
March 28, 2008
G: High, happy voice . . . “Why God made you so soft Mommy?”
(Pregnant pause)
G: Serious voice, shake of the head . . . “Daddy isn’t.”
This is the same child who told me that he likes to pet my tummy because it is “soft and squishy.”
April 8, 2008
This is a conversation I primarily overheard from the kitchen. My husband, C, went into G’s room to get him ready for bed.
C: “OK, Diaperizer”
G: “No. I want Mommy.”
Pause while C attempts to put G’s diaper on.
G: “No. I want Mommy to put my diaper on.”
Another pause while C tries again.
C to Mommy: “Honey, can you come do this?”
G: “I want these on.” Hands Daddy his one piece jammies.
C: “No. If you put those on without a diaper and you poop, the poop will roll down your leg and get stuck between your toes.”
G laughs.
R to Daddy: “Are you sure?”
C: (Deadpan) “Yes. You should try it sometime.”
R comes to the kitchen with a silly grin on her face.
R to Mommy: “If you poop without a diaper it will come out your leg. Is that true?”
Mommy: “Yes.”
Two minutes go by while R puts on her one piece jammies.
R comes back to the kitchen.
R to Mommy: “Are you sure poop will come out your leg? How does it do that?”
November 22, 2008
So G and I were at Bed, Bath and Beyond yesterday. We were cruising through the bedding section when all of a sudden I hear, “Mommy! This is COZY!” Look it’s cozy on my tummy.” I see G on the other side of the throw blanket display holding his shirt up to his collar-bone with two hands, little belly sticking out so he can rub it on the blue microfleece / minky throws hanging on a center display. His little eyes were as bright as could be and his smile was huge . . . he was so pleased!
Today he is cruising around in his full body black polyester costume that has plastic skeleton bones on the outside so he looks like the Grim Reaper. I was helping him climb into it for the third time when he got all excited and said, in his highest, squeekiest, I’m so excited I’m beside myself voice, “I look just like Red Ridin’ Hood!” And then with a sudden shift to a completely normal voice, “Because I have a hood.”
April 27, 2009
R: “Mamma, does G-d know what I’m going to say next? Because you know what? I don’t know what I’m going to say next!”
Laughter from the audience.
R: “Should I say it again?”
July 2009:
G & R were drawing a going away poster from my friend S and her family.
G: “I want to make G-d and Jesus and Noah.”
R: “G did you know that G-d and Jesus and Yeshua are one big person with lots of names?”
Mom: Which one are you making?”
G: “The one with the wife.”
Back to the to-do list,
D
Ingies n' Things 