The Couch

Our couch was one of the first pieces of furniture Blaine and I bought together when we bought our first house. It was our first real grown-up couch. Not a well-loved parental hand off or hand-me-down, or even an Ikea couch. We loved and were proud of our couch!

Our couch was the center piece of our "main" room in our first house where so many friends and family gathered making wonderful memories.

Our couch was the place that I cried, while Eli cried (and cried and cried and cried) as a newborn who never slept and was the place Blaine and I slept the first few weeks of Eli's life while we desperately tried to get him to sleep in his car seat (?!?!?!?).

Conversations, movie nights, arguments, pregnancy announcements, and lots of laughs happened on that couch.

All three of our baby boys slept on it, nursed on it, drank out of sippy cups for the first time on it, I am sure even released a few bodily fluids on it if we are being totally honest.

But if we are also being honest, it was time to let it go and get a new one, a bigger one. It had seen better days.

I couldn't help but feel sad when I saw the empty space where the couch sat, thinking about everything that had happened on or around that couch over the course of 8 years and realized what a central role it had played in our lives. Our kids don't remember us every having a different sofa, well, because it is the only we have ever had in their lifetimes. They grew up with it.

I get it, it is just a  couch. But I have a problem with placing a lot of sentimental value on things and have a hard time with change.  Eli does too.  Blaine had been hounding me to get a new couch for such a long time, and I just didn't want a change and to let that couch go. But when the right one came along, without letting my emotions get in the way we bought it.

We brought it home, moved the old one to the garage, and set up the new one in the playroom. I 100% thought that when Eli and Owen got home and went upstairs they would be so excited. It was new, and BIG!

Wow, I was so wrong. Eli was so upset he started crying. He is just like me as a kid...he had such an attachment to it and loved it that he was so sad that it was gone.  He told me that he would never get to be a baby on the new couch or drink milk on it like he had on the old one.  I totally understood his feelings. I tried my best to explain that we just had to make new memories on the new couch. And now we had so much more room for movie nights and sleepovers!  It took him a while, but he finally got over some of his sadness.  He still brings it up now and then, but he realized the new couch is great for an obstacle course, because you know--boys.....and he is coming around to liking the new one.

Dear Eli

You are turning EIGHT. Sounds old, right?!?!? Do I say that every year?

Yes, yes I do.

Every year it seems that we put behind us one challenge, only to be met with other challenges that come with getting older.  But that is all part of the deal.

We started today off with balloons, "Happy Birthday" lights strung across the fireplace, and big ole' stack of Snickerdoodle cookies and bacon--the perfect way to start YOUR day. You opted out of birthday cake for breakfast and went with snickerdoodle cookies, good choice.

You told me this morning that it was a great birthday already...I hope you feel that way during your entire year of being 8. You did not ask for much. You asked for a Nerf Gun and an XBOX game. On your actual birthday you requested that we all go to Blazer Tag together, just the 5 of us. I loved that that is what you wanted to do!  But they are closed on Wednesdays. I was worried you would be really upset that we could not do that, but when I told you, you took it in stride and came up with another plan for your birthday.  You wanted to get your new game, and go to The Salt Lick--just the 5 of us.

A 8 years old, there are a few qualities you have that remind me of me at your age, which, I am not going to lie....drive me crazy.  You are stubborn as all get out! I see that you sometimes have expectations, and when things do not go your way or those expectations are not met you get so upset. I was like that too as a kid. I had to work really hard to share my expectations with the ones I loved so that I would not feel let down when they did not just "know" what I wanted.  You are shy and hate attention on you. You love, I mean, love electronics.  I think that if we let you, you would be on some type of device most of the day. So, with that, your Dad and I have had to put a lot of restrictions on you and time spent on them. You are smart and have a killer memory like your dad. You enjoy being with friends just as much as you love being at home.



You are doing really great in school this year. Although getting you to do homework is the most frustrating part of my day! You just don't want to do it. You still wake up before the crack of dawn...generally somewhere in the 5 o'clock hour, some days I have no idea how you make it through the whole day!
I notice you growing up more in little things you do. You usually want to say good-bye to me in the hallway before we get to your class in the mornings before school. You are more independent and know what you want. You are close to both of your brothers and (most of the time) y'all have a blast together. It is my greatest joy to see you boys play and love each other together. Last night, all three of you were sleeping in my bed. I went around and gave you each a kiss and whispered good-night in your ear and then just layed there listening to you all breathing thinking how in the world I got so darn lucky.

You are a kind, sweet boy whom I am so, so proud of. Sometimes your dad and I are a bit hard on you, but that is only because we see so much potential in you. I am excited to see what being 8 years old beholds for you! I love you with all my heart and soul!