May Day memories

 

2019

2004

2018

2011 or 2012?

2017

2006

2005

Today is May Day. We didn't make or deliver any baskets. Maybe it's because the boys hare too old. Maybe they were wrapped up in Graham, Elliot and Finn heading back to PA or the house construction or heading to Mitch's. Maybe I didn't push hard enough. I thought in middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be fun. I also know times change. I also know, maybe, just maybe, if I'd had the things here, they would have been in. So next year, I'll have the supplies and be ready!  I loved the tissue paper idea our first year and how we kept with it. I remember in 2018, Graham only wanted to do them if we could do cups. Sure, if that's how we'll make it happen. Last year, Pierce had no interest until the last minute. And he too wanted cups. Whatever you want next year boys, this mom will be ready and all in! For tonight, I'm going to settle into the memories, maybe shed a couple of tears at not having done them this year, look for all the other years of photos and say a little prayer for 2021.

Steps....

10 years ago today, Pierce took his first steps outside on non-snow covered ground. I will remember his giggle and smile forever. Pierce was full speed ahead with walking.

Picking up a kid. For the last time.

Just the other day I picked Pierce up. Yep, 10 years old, 5 feet tall, 100+ pounds and I picked him up to hold him. Not to move him or for anything other than to hold him. And he let me. He still sits on my lap on occasion and honestly until about Christmas, I picked him up regularly. I love it. I think I did it the other day because I looked at him and realized, I don't think I will carry him to his room or anywhere again. He's simply too big and too old. I wanted to remember the last time. In our kitchen. In the evening. Last week. Now if that was the last time, I will be okay with it. I think.

Another toy moving on

Pierce, you LOVED this tool set from Gamma and Gump. I ha a hard time parting with it but Jensen Pippert is going to LOVE it nearly as much as you. Growing up.....

Ready?

As I near my own bedtime, here's what I'm thinking....

Freshmen registration and orientation ✅

Junior high registration and orientation ✅

4th grade and only one in elementary ✅

New school shoes bought ✅

Backpacks, school supplies and lunchboxes ✅

All boys sleeping ✅

We’re ready for tomorrow.

Wait.... freshmen, another junior high and only one left in elementary school? I may have to rethink this “ready” part!

As Max went to bed tonight he told me he was ready for high school. I know he is and overall, I am too. I know it's the next step under this parenting/child relationship. I am ready to watch him soar in new ways. That said, I'm still not ready... for the end of summer, for the boys ages, for one to be four years from moving out of the house and well, I just want to snuggle a little longer! 

Time passes.....

March 1, 2011 (Facebook post)

another Beckman Boy registered for kindergarten - seriously, already? He's so excited to start "max's school" which brings a smile to me. Two at one school - a great for mom, perhaps not the same for the school! Wait until there are three!

February 28, 2018 (Facebook post)

February was a bit month - basketball, basketball, basketball, my birthday, Valentine's Day. Even bigger though and sticking with us - Max finished driver's ed and registered for high school and Graham registered for junior high. Here's to new adventures!

(Junior High registration - February 20)
(Driver's Ed and High School registration - February 7)

New scent

I'm usually talking about the bad smells of boys - sports equipment, shoes, body parts. A welcome change today. Max asked for cologne a couple of weeks ago and after some discussion, smelling and looking, he's found one. Seriously, my son is wearing cologne? Welcome Kenneth Cole to the family. I will say, he smells great. I told him I liked the way he smelled this morning. He smiled. Probably the only time he wants to hear that from his mom.

Multiplication - it's time we meet

Can we just say Pierce went to bed excited tonight? Okay, understatement. He's also pretty proud of himself, and he should be.

When Mrs. Honey saw me come through the door this afternoon to pick-up Pierce, she came out of the office to catch me before I got Pierce.

"Wow, did Pierce do a great thing and make us look good. He came up to me while the Department of Education gentleman* was by me and said "Mrs. Honey, I've done the addition and multiplication books. I want to try multiplication.' I didn't know how he would do but thought let's give it a try. I showed him how to do a couple of the problems with the beads and then he took off on his own. AND he did three [held up her fingers for emphasis] books. It was great. I was so proud of him and how wonderful that the visitors saw his learning."

I, of course, was smiling huge and made a couple of comments about being proud, his obviously listening while the boys do math facts, trying to do very basic ones on his own, playing with food, toys or dots to show multiplication at home, and being happy he could help Montessori. We talked about his timing, showing he already knew addition and subtraction, sought out this new challenge on his own and did it and that he's just over five wanting to do this. We agree - kindergarten will be interesting for him after having such an amazing and growing year!

As soon as I asked Pierce about his day and Mrs. Honey was standing by, his smile grew ten fold - he always has an amazing smile for me when I pick him up - and he said "I did multiplication today!" You can be sure, Mitch and both brothers heard about it. So did Meghan at basketball.


*State of Iowa Department of Education were visiting to get a better understanding of Montessori curriculum as there are state discussions about preschool curriculum and training for preschool teachers. A potential bill would require consistency in training and not count Montessori. This would be a loss given the intense, specialized and strong training Montessori instructors go through and the curriculum that has worked for decades.

Nashville Christmas

Congratulations, Nashville, Aunt Niese and Uncle Jerry, and the long driving day yesterday, you wore my kids out. All had the option to stay up later because we're celebrating Christmas this weekend. The big kid choose to go to bed, the little one fell asleep with the light on and the middle one turned his head from the football game.  Wow. This is not an easy task.

The boys and Niese the day with a trip to Dunkin' Donuts. Then it was off to the Percy Dam, a two mile hike, lunch at home, football in the yard, a visit to LP Field home of the Titans, walking downtown Nashville, seeing the Capital and the inspiring Tennessee timeline, seeing Ryman Auditorium - original home of Grand Ole Opry, Antique Archaeology affiliated with American Pickers on History Channel (one store in Nashville, the other in LeClaire, Iowa) and checking out the country music recording studios. We finished the day off playing Dirty Dice a four year Beckman family tradition and celebrating Graham's birthday - doing one each day since we don't see Deniese and Jerry near the kids' birthdays. I get why everyone is tired!

Beckmans at Antique Archaelology - Nashville, TN

More lies ahead tomorrow.

Do I really need a Kleenex?

Suddenly, I'm realizing my boys may have taken my last food order and fixed my last meal (two pieces of pizza, grapes and a Diet Cherry Coke) on Monday night. I'm selling our Little Tikes Kitchen (sink, stove, oven and fold-out table) and the coordinating Refrigerator.

Sure, they play with it occasionally and at Pierce's age of five, Max and Graham were still playing with it quite a bit. But as the third of three boys, Pierce's interest is only peaked when one of his brothers' shows interest. It's time.

 Years of use and love. These were well worth whatever money we spent and space they took up in the play room. I've been the short order cook, the customer, the tea party guest, the cake tester, the grocery store organizer, and the bystander watching with a smile as three boys developed skills, made meals, stirred, poured, tasted, laughed, argued, filled the frig, washed dishes, made coffee, and served.



This is harder than I thought.

Now to find some photos of these in action because rarely were they this empty and neat!

Must have blinked

I realized this weekend that Pierce knows how to whistle. I thought it was one of the other boys. Nope, it was him. He said he learned on his own. How did that happen? When did he become old enough to know how to whistle?

I love his new talents. I hate how fast the third and final child grows. As if the other two were not growing up fast enough.

The newest lawn boy

Today we ventured into new territory and one that reminds me how quickly he's growing. Max asked to learn to mow, loved it and stuck with it the entire yard. He's his grandfathers and his parents child for sure. So proud of him. I do have to wonder "how long will it last?"

The pair is gone - #4

The upper left middle tooth came out a week ago. Today the upper right middle tooth. Graham's having a great time with the pair leaving a hole behind! He's on a schedule here -he lost his first tooth on April 7, 2012. April is his month. I hope the gold coin ends up in his pillow and he finds it and no tooth in the morning!

Ugh...

I've walked through the process a dozen times.

Yesterday afternoon, I put a gold coin in the kitchen cupboard near the dishwasher in preparation for the tooth fairy's visit. I noticed another gold coin also in the cupboard. Okay.

Graham put his tooth in his Super Hero pillow.

11:00ish p.m. I take one gold coin from the cabinet. The other is still there. I go in Graham's room and with one quiet movement, I take out the tooth and insert the coin. I put the tooth in a baggie with the information about how he lost it, when, which tooth and put the baggie with the other teeth for the memories.

This morning I get out of the shower and find Graham in tears holding his pillow. "The tooth fairy took my tooth but didn't leave anything."

"What?" I want to scream. "That's not possible. She did leave something. A gold coin." All those words I must hold back as I console him and say it must have been an accident. Perhaps she dropped whatever she was leaving. We'll write a note. It will be okay. He is so sad.

I retrace my steps. I tell Mitch what I did. I'm so confused. He asked "did you mean to go back with the coin." I would not risk two trips into the room and digging into the pillow. Absolutely not. There is still only one gold coin in the cupboard.  I know what I did. Perhaps the coin is in the register. Nope. Not under the bed. Pierce hasn't played with it. What happened????

I will likely never know.

So tonight, there is a beautifully written note, two gold coins and a Lego luggage tag by his bed. He'll be excited and move on and I'll continue to wonder what happened.....

Hole in the mouth - #3

Graham's top left tooth came out today with a little help from me. Graham is ridiculously excited as it's been loose for weeks. Now he can move on to the loose one right beside the hole!

Marriage

Our first marriage proposal from one of the boys came tonight. Max and Graham have always shied away from any serious or silly conversation about if they have a girlfriend or plan to marry someone. Tonight was no different although some conversation clearly happened earlier that I missed. I'll have to remember to ask Mitch in the morning.

Mitch, "Graham, tell mom about the kids in your class who are going to get married." 

"Dad, that was in like kindergarten," Graham sheepishly answers. "I do know who Landon is going to marry. Landon is going to marry Meghan."

"Meghan Carlson?" I ask. 

"Yes." End of conversation.

And at the other end of the table, Pierce jumped right in about his marriage.

"I'm going to get married," Pierce confidently tells me over dinner.

"Who are you going to marry?" I respond with a giggly smile.

"I'm going to marry my friend, Lauren at school [Montessori]." 

"Okay," me giving a smile back to the giddy four-year old beside me. Maybe he has his first crush.

Pierce is smiling and thinking now, "And a boy can marry a boy or a girl a girl. But mostly a boy marries a girl."
"Sure, Pierce."
Nothing more, just that, and he moves to the conversation that has occurred a dozen times among the boys over the years, "When Dad and you were married, where were Max, Graham and me?" 

"You were not born yet. We had all of you after we were married."

I am thankful that tonight the questions ended there and Pierce was content with the world of marriage.

One son and two friends/neighbor kids married off tonight. Big weekend.

Presidential Inauguration 2013

Love that my kids watched the inauguration of President Barack Obama with interest and filled with questions. This is history and part of us no matter which side of politics you prefer. Today is filled with reminders of the blessings and privileges we have as Americans. May we all come together and move forward to make our country stronger. God bless President Obama and the four years he has to lead our country, the United States of America.

Bedrooms, balloons and birthdays

A realization tonight - the three days a year I am most thankful my boys have small bedrooms - their birthdays, when Mitch and I fill the floor with balloons!

Happy birthday (by just s couple minutes) today to my GB!

Presidential Excitement

Boys are very interested in the life of the president lately and asking lots of questions - LOVE it! Yesterday, I told them that President Obama was coming to Iowa City tomorrow morning with his wife Michelle and Vice President Biden and his wife. They, quite honestly like me, think this is VERY exciting and cool. This is extra exciting because he'll be here the day after he spoke at the Democratic National Convention and he's on the University of Iowa Campus.

We have tickets - with thousands of others - to see him on campus on the Jessup Hall Lawn. He's speaking about 5:20 pm and the "doors" open at 1:00 pm.  There's a 70% chance of rain. I'm not a negative person and love rare opportunities for my kids. I picked up tickets because I wanted us to go as a family to experience the excitement. I  hate to take the chance of seeing a President from them but seeing the President from blocks away while standing for hours, possibly in the rain, will probably significantly diminish the excitement, perhaps crush it entirely. UGH!

Another growing up moment

The oldest seems so old tonight as he sleeps with his full baseball uniform hanging by his bed.