Excerpts from the past

The other afternoon had been a little slow, so I began to go through some old files to clean up and clear out.  I happened upon several documents that told some old Eli stories I'd forgotten about entirely.  They brought a smile to my face and laughter to my heart.  I thought I would share them here.

A recap of a story I'd written down - so I wouldn't forget it - from July 2006 (Eli would have been 4 years old at the time)

July 13, 2006

My dad has a large but light red birthmark in the middle of his forehead.  You don’t really notice it much, unless he’s ticked off….at which point it serves as visual notification that you need to turn and walk away.  My sister ended up with this birthmark right in the center of her forehead as well.  I never notice hers and haven’t really seen it since she was a baby.  I remember that hers resembled a check-mark and we joked that God had checked her off as a “good egg” on the baby assembly line before sending her on down to us!

For my parent’s 43^rd Wedding Anniversary, my dad took us all to Red Lobster in Parkersburg (technically Vienna) WVa tonight.  Ben, Ash, Elijah and I arrived slightly ahead of Mom, Dad, Rachel and her (former boyfriend - name withheld), and we were waiting in the entryway for the staff to arrange a table-for-eight.  Eli (four years old) was running in circles, excited to be at “Wed Lobstah” once again!  There were no other restaurant patrons at that moment so I figured he could burn off a few moments-worth of energy before we were seated.  He wasn’t really running actually…more like dramatically walking around really fast, hunched over slightly, with his elbows swinging out to the sides in a pronounced fashion as he roamed around and around the small entryway area exploring his environment.  Had other patrons arrived, I’d have reined him in quickly.

As the rest of our group arrived, we all began our greetings and Eli swung past on this trip around the area, saw dad, and said, “Hi Gwampah!  I like your duck!” and then continued on his way.

We all stopped and silently stared at dad as he looked himself over, searching for a “duck”.  Finding no ducks on clothing, etc., we all just chuckled, shrugged and continued on with our evening. 

On the way home, however, I asked Eli what he was referring to as Grandpa’s Duck.  He looked at me for a moment, and I thought he wasn’t going to answer.  Then he pointed at his forehead and I suddenly realized that he must’ve seen my dad’s birthmark for the first time.  Why he thought it reminded him of a duck, I’ll never know, but we all had a great laugh about it, and when we got home I called to fill my folks in on where Dad’s “duck” was located.

From a Family letter sent in March 2008 (Eli would have been 5 years old a the time, about 6 weeks shy of his 6th birthday).  

Eli is planning to try his hand….or perhaps I should say feet…at soccer this spring.   He’s played some at school and seems to enjoy it.  He’s doing better at being capable of following directions and behaving, so this is a good time to try something new.  He too will be having a room makeover in the summertime.  His room is still in the theme of the original nursery that was made when I was pregnant with Ash.  Eli will be turning six at the end of April and has far outgrown fuzzy little barnyard animals, don’tcha think?!  J  It’s part of his birthday but he understands he’ll have to wait until summer for it to be done.

Pictures of how we re-did his room, and it's still decked out in Star Wars to this day, (only not as neat!) with framed old movie theater posters from the original showings!  And I managed to order a bedspread that totally matched one of the posters and didn't even realize it until everything arrived! 

 From a letter to my grandmother, November 2008 (Eli would have been 6 years old at the time)

Eli is now taking **** and seems to be doing fairly well on it.  He’s doing a little better at school, not giving his teacher as hard a time.  His anxiety seems a little better.  It will take time for it to build up in his system enough to level out and stabilize him, but we are already seeing improvements.  So that’s good! 

At his counseling appointment last night, his counselor learned a valuable lesson.  Ha ha!  J  She told him that she was going to be coming into his classroom soon to observe, and then she made her mistake…she tacked on, “Is that okay?” at the end.  Eli promptly told her NO.  I was sitting there cringing as soon as “Is that okay?” started out of her mouth.  I wanted to scream, “NO!  DON’T ASK THAT!”  Ha ha ha!  I told her later, it’s probably not a good idea to ever ask him permission.  I had to cut in and tell Eli that really he didn’t have a say in this, that Meg WOULD be coming in to observe in his classroom, but she would not embarrass him, she wouldn’t even talk to him, and no one would know that she was there for him.  She would just come in like any other college student who would be doing field experience, or like a student teacher, but she’d just be sitting there.  Eli wouldn’t have to talk to her or anything.  He still wasn’t happy about it, because it will cause him major anxiety the day she shows up.  Eeek! 

These are just a few stories that are fond memories because they either made me laugh out loud, or possibly snicker behind my hand.  Even during the "rougher" days when E was really struggling, even then he never failed to bring me such joy.