Actually, that was a couple of weeks ago, but ..... it IS the first day of my absolutely FAVORITE photo project of the year! Today we kick off the count down to Wonder Boy's seventeenth birthday! Whoop!
In 2001, when the Boy was but a few months old, we got to celebrate our first Christmas as a family of three. He was captivated by the twinkling lights on the tree. And come Christmas Day, he thoroughly enjoyed all of the wrapping paper as well. In time, he enjoyed the toys as well, but mostly, he was impressed by all the crumpled up paper.
The little bouncy chair, that we dubbed his "happy chair," was his favorite place to kick back and relax throughout the holiday season. And as such, it was one of MY favorite things as well! When he was strapped into this little chair, we could grab a bite to eat, maybe rinse up a few dishes, or if we were VERY lucky we could switch out keeping an eye on our little man and grab a shower!
It really was a magical Christmas. We didn't travel. We didn't host or attend a bunch of parties. Instead, we holed up a home - the 3 of us. Wonder Dad and I caught up on sleep, got into a routine, and soaked up every moment we could with our dear Wonder Boy. We knew in January he would be starting day care, so we wanted to enjoy having him mostly to ourselves for as long as we could.
Today, one of his favorite places to be sitting is in the driver's seat of his car. He's been driving on his own for over 9 months now. In some ways, it has gotten easier to watch him pull out of the driveway on his own. There are some benefits to having him deliver himself to school each morning, some of them eerily similar to the bouncy chair back in the day. I'm finding that the time I used to spend dropping him off at school, I can now spend at home running an extra load of laundry or dishes. I can put dinner in the crock pot or at least pull something out of the freezer for later on. So in that respect, it reminds me of the little bit of hands-free time we got when he was enjoying his "happy chair."
But unlike the beloved bouncy chair of old, there is no one to keep an eye on him when he straps himself into that driver's chair.
Despite the change in chairs, it warms my heart to see him pull into the driveway after school each day. We've worked into a routine where he goes down his day once he gets home - kind of like the report he used to deliver on the drive home each day. It's been an adjustment, more on my part than his, but we're getting there.
And that is where we are today! Sixteen more to go!
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