A Day in the Life: Big Dreams

My Babies

Christmas 2013

I'm copying photos [again] from one hard drive to another and scrolling through the thousands of images I've snapped of the kids since our family went digital in December 2003. What this means for Owen (who was born in 2001) is that his early adorable years are locked away in photo albums and archive boxes and perusing them requires pulling books off shelves and boxes out of basements. Rest assured, his baby days are appropriately archived (and he is the only one of my two children with a finished baby book) but they are not [as] easily accessible as Sarah's. Honestly, I'm giving both of them enough material / evidence to effectively argue that they are not their mother's favorite - a la "you have more pictures" versus "you have a finished baby book". All's fair in love and siblings, right?

January 14, 2006

The Very First Gymnastics Class

Green Hills YMCA

I can say without reservation that the best part of having access to thousands upon thousands of digital images of my children's childhoods is that I can pull up photos month by month and watch them grow all over again, skipping over the messy tantrum-y parts (which I photographed too), and focusing on the many firsts and middles and lasts of their young lives. Take those two photos hanging out up above this paragraph for example, both snapped eight years ago today at Sarah' very first gymnastics class at the Green Hills YMCA. She was 23 months old and, as I've written about before, she took to gymnastics like a duck to water.

That picture over there on the left is from Sarah's Kindergarten graduation. It's a tradition at SBA for each graduating kindergartner to receive their diploma then stop at the microphone before returning to their seat and announce what it is they hope to be when they grow up. This photo captures the moment when Sarah said "When I grow up, I want to be a gymnast." At just six and barely tall enough to reach the very short microphone, it was cute - especially considering her brother had said he wanted to be a ninja at his graduation three years earlier (and yes, many other children said they wanted to be things like a doctor or a teacher or a banker - we grow free thinkers here at Team Vallejo). In the intervening years, Owen has moved on from his dream of being a ninja, but Sarah spends hours upon hours every week working hard at being a gymnast. She says she wants to compete in college someday then move to Paris and become a successful artist with an emphasis on successful because Paris is expensive and you can't live there with no money. I tell her she can do anything she sets her mind to, including college gymnastics and moving to Paris and supporting herself, as long as she makes good grades in school. She's heard me say dozens of times "Who gets into the college of their choice? Kids with good grades get into the college of their choice. Go read a book." Do I think she's going to be a college gymnast or pack her bags and move to Paris? Honestly, I have no idea. I also know that it really doesn't matter what I think because these are her dreams, not mine. What I do know is that I am blessed beyond measure every single day to be on this journey with her and her brother. These kids of mine are pretty terrific. And since today's writing turned out to be more about his sister than about him, Owen can add this to the pile of evidence labeled "I know my sister was my mom's favorite."